STARS HOLD OFF COMETS FOR 6-5 WIN
INDEPENDENCE, MO. – The Kansas City Comets (5-5) faced the Tacoma Stars (3-4) for the second time this season, and for the second time fell to the visitors by a 6-5 final. Tacoma remains the only team to have beaten the Comets at Cable Dahmer Arena this season.
The Comets got off to a slow start against the Stars in the first half, though they only gave up one first quarter goal. Vini Dantas knocked in his fifth of the season, one-timing a wall pass from Adriano Dos Santos to give Tacoma a 1-0 lead with 2:57 to go in the 1st quarter.
The Stars added to that lead on Eddie Na’s first of the year with an assist to Nick Perera to put the Comets down 2-0 with 8:32 to go in the half. Stars’ keeper Chris Toth was shown a blue card for a two-footed tackle and it did not take long for Kansas City to make them pay. Off the restart, John Sosa slid a pass to Leo Gibson who sent home a one-timer for a power-play goal making it a 2-1 Tacoma advantage.
Stars’ rookie Willie Spurr turned an assist from Alex Caceres into his first career MASL point beating Kansas City keeper Nicolau Neto low for a 3-1 Tacoma advantage. Dantas closed out first-half scoring with his second of the game on a 3-on-2 advantage from the right side by one-timing an Adrian Gutierrez pass sending the teams to the break with a 4-1 Stars lead.
The Stars stretched that lead even further as Dantas completed his hat trick, assisted by Mike Ramos to give Tacoma a 5-1 lead with 9:45 left in the 3rd. That goal woke the Comets offense up as they rallied the next three goals and four of the final five scored in the game.
Ray Lee scored back-to-back goals in the 3rd beginning with a 1-on-1 from the right side to cut the deficit to three. Next, Gibson fed him the ball and he went top shelf to make it a 5-3 game headed to the final quarter.
Lucas Sousa found Mike DaSilva for his fifth goal of the season and cut Tacoma’s margin to just a single goal with 7:48 left to play. With just over four minutes to go, Kansas City pulled Neto in favor of Gibson in the sixth attacker jersey. Gibson faced Tacoma’s Adrian Correa near mid-field and Correa got past him with a wide-open net in front of him. That goal made it a two-goal lead once again, at 6-4 with only 1:28 on the clock.
Just 12 seconds after that goal, Ramone Palmer found Sosa, who rocketed a shot from outside of the yellow line cutting the Stars lead to one again at 6-5 with 1:16 remaining. The Comets had a couple of opportunities to net the equalizer, but Tacoma held them out and time expired on the Comets, snapping their win streak at four games.
The Ontario Fury will make their only regular season appearance at Cable Dahmer Arena tomorrow evening at 5:05 pm CST. Tickets for that match are available through Ticketmaster or by calling (888) 9-COMETS.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st – TAC Dantas (Dos Santos) 12:03. Penalties – None.
2nd– TAC Na (Perera) 6:28; KC Gibson (Sosa) PP 7:43; TAC Spurr (Caceres) 11:07; TAC Dantas (Gutierrez) 14:06. Penalties – TAC Toth blue card (two-footed tackle) 7:41.
3rd – TAC Dantas (Ramos) 5:15; KC Lee (Sosa) 9:15; KC Lee (Gibson) 12:55. Penalties – None.
4th – KC DaSilva (Sousa) 7:12; TAC Correa 13:32; KC Sosa (Palmer) 13:44. Penalties – None.
Shots – Kansas City 2-5-10-9 (26); Tacoma 6-6-4-6 (22)
The Ontario Fury come to Cable Dahmer Arena tomorrow, March 7 with a 5:05 pm CST start time. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or by calling (888) 9-COMETS.