Comets end Baltimore's winning streak

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — The Kansas City Comets defeated the Baltimore Blast on Saturday evening at Cable Dahmer Arena, concluding Baltimore’s eight-game winning streak.

Saturday’s victory was the Comets’ first win against the Blast in nearly 10 years — last beating Baltimore on Dec. 11, 2016, by a score of 5-1 with current Comets head coach Stefan Stokic scoring twice. This time, it was defender Lesia Thetsane who came up with a heroic performance with four goals while a staunch Comets defense outblocked the Blast 20-9 as Phillip Ejimadu logged 15 saves and an assist.

The Blast were the aggressors from the start, getting their reward when Jun Pereira struck on the power play. The Comets responded instantly as Lesia Thetsane’s first of the night came from a brilliant corner restart, assisted by Zach Reget.

The Comets’ first lead of the night came 10:31 into the second quarter, when Thetsane struck again, this time on a quick counterattack assisted by David Stankovic.  Less than three minutes later, a quick restart from Rian Marques allowed Christian Anderaos to double Kansas City’s lead as the Comets led 3-1 at halftime.

In the third quarter, both teams traded a score. Dominic Francis put a tally on the board for the Comets before Jonatas Melo pulled one back for the Blast.

A seven-goal fourth quarter provided enough for the Comets to rise victorious. Despite an apparent injury, Zach Reget battled to get himself back into the game, scoring his lone goal of a three-point night by smashing a left-footed wallascora off the post 37 seconds into the fourth. Thetsane completed his hat trick to stretch KC’s lead to 6-2.

The Blast didn’t go easy as Pereira led the charge on Baltimore’s sixth-attacker offense. Lucas Sousa scored midway through the frame, but Pereira and Frater added scored to slice the Comets’ lead to 7-5 inside the final five minutes.

A two-minute penalty for Baltimore proved fatal for the Blast, and though they killed the penalty, it also killed their momentum as Thetsane eventually added his fourth of the night to give the Comets an 8-5 victory.

“Every win means a lot to me,” Stokic said. “Especially playing against Baltimore makes it even better. It means a lot; the last time we beat them was when I played.”

The Comets jump back into the race for the MASL Shield and a first-round bye, level with Milwaukee and San Diego for second place and a single point behind league-leading Baltimore. If they secure a top-two seed after next weekend’s regular-season finale, the Comets will secure a spot in the Ron Newman Cup Semifinals.

The Comets will wrap up the regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series against the San Diego Sockers. The home finale is slated for Friday, March 27, for Military Night with tickets available at kccomets.com/tickets. They will finish the regular season in San Diego on March 29.

SCORING SUMMARY

GAME STATS

Attendance - 4,678