Comets take rare shootout win against Ambush

ST. CHARLES, MO — The Kansas City Comets clinched a share of the I-70 Series Cup for the sixth consecutive season, using a shootout to defeat the St. Louis Ambush 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at Family Arena.

The game was far from pretty, but the Comets never trailed as they took a 3-0 lead in the six-game series against their Show-Me State rivals. In the end, the strong goalkeeping duo of Julio Coronado and Phillip Ejimadu was on full display, with Ejimadu being the difference-maker in the shootout with three saves to deliver the road win.

The Comets broke the deadlock late in the first quarter when Nacho Flores scored his second of the season, striking a pass from Henry Ramirez precisely off the far post before crossing the goal line. Just over a minute later, Mikey Lenis’ first of the season doubled the Comets’ advantage, heading in to complete the wallascora on a pass from Chad Vandegriffe.

Both teams were unable to convert on power play opportunities in the second quarter, which concluded with the Comets outshooting the Ambush 15-7 in the first half. Coronado, with the assistance of Ejimadu for the final 34 seconds of the first quarter, kept the Ambush scoreless for the first 30 minutes.

The Ambush finally got on the board 12:29 into the third period when Mario Falsone scored the first of his career, juggling the ball into open space before blasting it into the far corner to cut the deficit in half.

St. Louis drew level midway through the fourth quarter when a shot from Daniel Torrealba took a deflection before looping in. Ejimadu returned to the game with hopes to spark some more transition opportunities with his strong arm, but neither found the go-ahead goal to send the game to overtime.

Still, neither team could convert in the 10 minutes of sudden-death play to force a shootout, with the Comets outshooting the Ambush 6-2 in overtime.

The Ambush stepped up first in the opening round of the best-of-three shootout to face Ejimadu, who denied Lucas Almeida with his outstretched right arm. On the Comets’ try, Lucas Sousa scored his right-footed effort high into the net to give the Comets an early 1-0 advantage.

In round two, Ejimadu used his right foot to deny Robert Williamson’s attempt. On Kansas City’s second attempt, Dom Francis also went high, but St. Louis goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento met it with his right arm.

On the verge of defeat, the Ambush sent Daniel Torrealba for their third attempt. After taking a heavy touch, Torrealba had his space suffocated by an onrushing Ejimadu, who secured the victory with his third shootout save.

“I don’t know where to start,” Comets head coach Stefan Stokic said. “I mean, it’s great to get a win in a shootout. As a team, as a coach, it’s a good thing to win a shootout.”

The Comets improved to 5-2-0 on the season, adding two points with the shootout win — the team’s first shootout win in 11 years (over 4,000 days). The Ambush dropped to 2-2-1 on the season, taking one point from the shootout defeat as their two-game winning run came to an end.

After scoring 11 last week, the Comets were held to just two goals against St. Louis on Sunday. They went more than 40 minutes without scoring after two first-quarter goals.

“We haven’t yet reached our full potential, which is playing a whole game defensively and offensively,” Stokic said. “We’re on a right path, we just have to combine the two together for a whole game.”

Coronado made six saves in nearly 52 minutes on the field for his second consecutive start since starting in place for Ejimadu, who isn’t fully recovered from an injury of his own. Ejimadu made four saves in his nearly 18 minutes of action before making three stops in the shootout to earn his fourth win this season.

The Comets and Ambush continue their four-game slate next Saturday, Dec. 27, when they meet at Cable Dahmer Arena. Tickets for next Saturday’s matchup are available at kccomets.com/tickets.

SCORING SUMMARY

SHOOTOUT SUMMARY

GAME STATS

Attendance - 3,905