The St. Louis Ambush lost 4-3 to the Syracuse Silver Knights Sunday afternoon at the Oncenter War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse improved to 12-7 with the win, while the Ambush dropped to 3-18. The win also earned the Silver Knights, who also beat the Ambush Friday night, a sweep over the Ambush in the two-game weekend series and the four-game season series between the two teams.
The opening frame saw only one goal and it belonged to St. Louis. When a Syracuse player missed a rebound coming off the boards, Ambush defender Dylan Hundelt didn’t miss and was able to beat Syracuse goalkeeper Andrew Coughlin at 9:31.
St. Louis took a 2-0 lead when Cody Costakis took a long pass from Raphael Nascimento and sliding feet first, pushed it into the goal at 3:27 of the second quarter. The Silver Knights got on the board at 11:00 when Joey Tavernese headed the ball just inches out of the reach of Ambush goalkeeper Paulo.
The Silver Knights drew even on a restart at 2:29 of the third period when Kenardo Forbes passed to Nate Bourdeau, who fired a shot directly at Paulo, who got a hand on it, but the ball carried into the net. Slavisa Ubiparipovic gave the Knights their first lead of the game (3-2) when he nutmegged defender Richard Schmermund with a shot that ended up in the corner of the net at 8:29 of the third quarter. Syracuse went on a power play when Ambush defender Raphael Nascimento was sent to the penalty box for pushing Tavernese down from behind at 9:11. Kenardo Forbes made good on the opportunity as he fired a laser of a shot from outside the arc at 10:52 to give the Silver Knights at 4-2 advantage.
The Ambush got a power play opportunity when Coughlin earned a blue card at 2:52 of the fourth quarter (served by Logan Roberts) for sliding feet-first into Lucas Almeida. The visitors were able to seize the opportunity when Almeida passed to Joao Pepe, who made a quick shot into the back of the net at 2:53 to reduce the deficit to 4-3. Despite numerous chances, the Ambush couldn’t mount more of a comeback, and Syracuse held on for the victory.
Ambush goalkeeper Paulo made 17 saves in 21 save attempts for a respectable .810 save percentage. What the stats don’t show is that he turned in a superb performance, doing everything but standing on his head to help keep his team in the contest. Syracuse goalkeeper Andrew Coughlin also turned in a stellar effort, saving 12 in 15 chances (.800 save percentage) in earning his eleventh win of the season.
The Ambush come home to the Family Arena to close out the 2017-18 season when they host the Monterrey Flash Sunday, February 25 at 3:05 p.m. CST.
