The St. Louis Ambush defeated the Milwaukee Wave 9-8 Friday night at Axius Field at The Family Arena. The win improved the Ambush to 7-9-2 on the season, while Milwaukee dropped to 6-9-1.
Both teams scored in the fourth minute of the match with JT Thomas pulling off a difficult angle shot for St. Louis and Stuart Grable answering for Milwaukee 15 seconds later. Milwaukee took a 2-1 lead when Javier Steinwascher scored off a pass from Andre Hayne midway into the first quarter.
At the 16 second mark in the second frame, St. Louis posted the equalizer when Pepe Junqueira scored from outside the arc off a pass from Marcel Berry. The Ambush took a 3-2 lead when Will Eskay scored from inside the arc in the fourth minute of the period. Milwaukee would take the lead before halftime on goals from Luan Oliveira and Kyle Crain to make it a 4-3 game.
Milwaukee took a 5-3 lead in the second minute of the third quarter on a goal by Mario Alvarez. St. Louis answered when Vadim Cojocov took a pass from goalkeeper Pollo Cortes, then went on a long run and beat Wave goalkeeper Joey Kapinos to shave the lead to 5-4. The Ambush knotted the score again (5-5) when Duduca Carvalho sent a pass across the goal mouth and it was picked up by a charging Cojocov, who was able to get it by Kapinos. Before the period ended, Jeff Michaud passed to Tony Walls, who found the back of the net and give the home team a 6-5 lead heading into the final stanza.
The Ambush drew first blood in second minute of the fourth quarter when Michaud sent a long pass to Robert Kristo, who played it off the wall and sent a shot over Kapinos’ head to give St. Louis a 7-5 lead. Three goals would be rattled off in just over a minute. Eskay scored for St. Louis to make it 8-5, then Milwaukee got one back on Oliveira’s second of the game, followed by Kristo’s second to give the Ambush a 9-6 lead. Milwaukee made it 9-7 when Ian Bennett sent a long rocket into the net with 4.5 minutes left in the game. Milwaukee went on a power play when Cojocov was sent to the penalty box for a handball and made good on the opportunity when Bennett scored to make it a one-goal contest (9-8). Milwaukee’s offense pulled out all the stops and despite a flurry of shots, the Ambush defense and goalkeeper Cortes managed to stop them all for the team’s second consecutive win.
The Ambush are back in action Sunday afternoon when they host the Florida Tropics at 4:05 p.m. CST at Axius Field at The Family Arena.
