Milwaukee Comeback Sinks Ambush
Milwaukee, WI (January 7, 2017) – The St. Louis Ambush got off to a good start against the Milwaukee Wave Saturday at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, but a fourth quarter comeback by the Wave, coupled with some Ambush mistakes, gave Milwaukee a 5-3 win. The victory improved the Wave’s record to 6-5, while St. Louis dropped to 1-9.
Milwaukee drew first blood at 4:19 of the opening period when Max Ferdinand managed to draw Ambush goalkeeper Casey Clark out of the goal, then pass the ball to Ian Bennett, who fired a shot into the empty net. The Ambush answered when Corey Adamson took a pass from Cody Costakis, then beat two Wave players and goalkeeper Rafael Dias to score at 8:06. Neither team scored again in the quarter, which expired with the score knotted at one each.
The Ambush took the lead at 9:14 of the second quarter when a Ross MacGregor shot narrowly missed the goal, but found Vadim Cojocov, who tapped the ball across the line. Cojocov’s goal would be the lone tally of the period, as time elapsed in the first half, which concluded with St. Louis enjoying a 2-1 lead.
The third quarter would see no scoring until 13:07 when former Ambush forward Andre Hayne scored the equalizer against his former team. The Ambush took the lead back with just 18 seconds remaining in the period when a shot by Adamson was blocked by Dias, causing the ball to rebound to Carlos Contreras, who got off a high shot that found the back of the net. That goal gave the Ambush a 3-2 lead that they carried into the final stanza.
The match became tied (3-3) again at 6:10 of the fourth quarter when Ambush goalkeeper Casey Clark kicked a pass, then deflected it with his chest into his own goal. That tally was credited to Milwaukee’s Robert Renaud, who never actually touched the ball. Milwaukee took a 4-3 lead at 9:30 when Max Ferdinand scored the go-ahead goal. The home team gained a man advantage when Greg Kranz was sent to the penalty box for tripping at 9:42. The Wave made good on the power play opportunity, as Bennett, the league leader in power play goals, scored another one seconds later at 9:53 to increase their lead to 5-3. The late rally by Milwaukee was successful, as they managed to keep the Ambush from scoring and held on for the win.
Ambush Head Coach Tony Glavin said although he was disappointed with the loss, he was happy to see the team improve from previous games. Glavin said, “We played hard all four quarters and showed much improvement. We’re not far away from where I want the team to be. We made a couple unfortunate mistakes, and it’s disappointing we didn’t get the win, but overall we played well.”