Sunday, February 21, 2016

Strong Second Half Sees Comets Down Silver Knights

For the second straight season the Missouri Comets finished the regular season unbeaten on the road with a 8-4 win over the Syracuse Silver Knights to push their record on the season to 16-3. They needed another comeback to do it though being down by two with five minutes left in the second quarter and a goal at half time. But five unanswered goals in the second half saw the Comets run away with things.

Bryan Perez got the Comets on the board first today though knocking home a pass from Leo Gibson to put the Comets on top with less than seven minutes played. The Silver Knights though took over the quarter from there Kenardo Forbes scored just over a minute later to tie the game. Then with under four minutes to play the Knights scored twice in the span of 17 seconds to take the lead 3-1 on goals by Darren Toby and Jerjer Gibson. Perez was able to get one back for the Comets in the final two and a half minutes off a John Sosa restart to cut the lead back to one after one quarter.

The second quarter saw the back and forth game continue, but less than seven minutes in, Doug Miller turned in a shot from Joey Tavernese that hit off the glass and bounced right into his path. The goal made it 4-2 and restored the Knights' two goal lead. The Comets once again fought back and were able to close the gap to one on a nice turn and finish by Gibson off an assist from Sosa to allow the Comets to head into the half down just one goal.

The Comets came out and were able to find an equalizer in the third quarter on the power play after a blue card was issued to Slavisa Ubiparipovic for tripping. Vahid Assadpour fired a blast past Knights goalkeeper Bryan O'Quinn on an assist by Gibson to tie the game at 4-4. The goal was the only one of the quarter and the two teams went into the fourth tied.

It took the Comets just over six minutes to retake the lead in the fourth with Assadpour again finding the net on Sosa's third assist of the game. Less than a minute later, Perez finished off the hattrick against his former team to make it 6-4 in a matter of moments. The Comets held off the Knights attack and with about three minutes left the Knights pulled their goalkeeper looking for a way back into the game with the extra attacker. The Comets though were the ones who took advantage, twice finding the open net in the final two and a half minutes to double the lead to 8-4 as Stefan Stokic and Max Touloute were the ones to add to their goal tally.

The Comets now return home for their final regular season game against the Blast next Saturday night. From there the Comets will then head into the playoffs to face off against Chicago or Milwaukee.

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