COMETS FALL TO THE STARS 7-5 SATURDAY NIGHT

INDEPENDENCE, MO. – The Comets (4-3-2) faced a Tacoma Stars (2-1-0) team that hadn’t played in 27 days and a very familiar keeper in Danny Waltman, who made 28 saves in picking up the win against his former team in front of 4,011 fans at Cable Dahmer Arena Saturday night.

The Comets got off to a quick start when Lesia Thetsane picked up a Stars turnover just inside the yellow line and shot a pass to a wide-open Nacho Flores who quickly put Kansas City up 1-0 with 10:15 still to go in the opening quarter.

The Stars’ Nick Perera found himself open on the left side and did a quick turn-and-shoot to beat Comets keeper Nicolau Neto to tie the game at 1-1, a score the teams took to the 2^nd quarter.

Tacoma tallied the only two goals of the 2^nd quarter, first a power play goal from Cory Keitz with 9:18 left until halftime, and Fellipe Souza’s first of the game with just 0:02 remaining.

The Comets’ first order of business in the 3^rd quarter was killing a penalty and bringing Steven Tekesky in to replace Neto, who picked up a blue and yellow card with 5:52 to play in the frame.

Kansas City killed the penalty, but the Stars were able to extend their lead to three goals at 4-1 when Eddie Na connected with Philip Lund for the even-strength goal with 1:04 left in the 3^rd.

The 3^rd quarter was the Comets’ turn for a late goal as Richard Schmermund bounced a long-distance goal past Waltman to make it a 4-2 Tacoma lead headed to the final quarter.

Momentum changed Kansas City’s way when they found themselves on a power play with a Tacoma player down behind the play giving the Comets a 5-on-3 advantage. Lucas Sousa sent a pass to Leo Gibson for the power play goal cutting the deficit to just one at 4-3 with 8:56 to play.

Less than two minutes later, Benji Monreal fired a shot that Waltman blocked but Sousa was there to send home the rebound and level the game at 4-4 with 7:24 on the clock.

Tacoma netted three straight goals from Souza, Na, and Tyler John to give the Stars a comfortable 7-4 advantage with just 4:06 left.

The final goal of the night was a walla-scora effort from Flores to Gibson with 26 seconds to play, arriving at the 7-5 final score.

The Comets are on the road in Dallas on January 15, and January 20 in St. Louis before returning to Cable Dahmer Arena on Saturday, January 21, 2023, against their Eastern Division rival Milwaukee Wave with a 6:05 kick-off. Tickets for that date and all Comets home games are available at www.kccomets.com/tickets.