In their home opener, the St. Louis Ambush pulled off a dramatic, come-from-behind, overtime victory over the rival Kansas City Comets Sunday afternoon at the Family Arena.
The Comets struck early, taking a 3-0 lead within the first seven minutes of the opening quarter on goals by Leo Gibson and two by Kiel Williams. Williams scored Kansas City’s second goal when he managed to draw Ambush goalkeeper Paulo out, giving him a clear shot at the empty net.
Kansas City posted the first goal of the second frame when Lucas Rodriguez took a pass from Leo Gibson, on a restart, and completed a tough angle shot at 6:16. The remainder of the period was scoreless and the visitors took a 4-0 lead into the halftime break.
The Ambush were blanked in the first half, but after halftime, a different team emerged from the dressing room. St. Louis was the first to get on the board in the second half when Clayton scored off a pass from Hewerton in the second minute of the third quarter. Fourth quarter goals by Mario Marcos and a power play goal by Hewerton closed the gap to 4-3. The equalizer came at 5:36 on Zach Reget’s unassisted tally. Kansas City regained the lead (5-4) when Rodriguez found the back of the net five minutes later. As he did earlier in the period, Reget was able to find his mark and score with less than a minute remaining to knot the score again (5-5).
The game winner came when Corey Adamson was able to beat Comets goalkeeper Brett Petricek at 4:48 of overtime, much to the delight of the 4,750 fans in attendance.
Ambush goalkeeper Paulo did everything but stand on his head to help keep his team in the game, making 17 saves in 22 attempts. Despite the loss, Petricek also turned in a stellar performance, saving 28 in 34 chances.
The Comets won’t have to wait long for revenge, as these two teams will do battle again next Saturday, December 22 at 7:05 p.m. at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence.
