AMBUSH LOSE IN OVERTIME TO TACOMA

St. Charles, MO

The St. Louis Ambush dropped a 6-5 overtime heart breaker to the Tacoma Stars Saturday night at the Family Arena. The 5,084 fans on hand saw a thriller of a contest, despite the disappointing outcome. Fan favorite Gordy Gurson registered a hat trick and goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa was dazzling in goal in his first start of the season. The loss dropped the Ambush to 0-6 on the season, while Tacoma improved to 6-3.

Tyrone Hall put Tacoma on the board first with an unassisted tally at 8:35 of the first quarter. The Ambush responded with goals by Anthony Arico and Gurson to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter. Tacoma goalkeeper Danny Waltman and St. Louis goalkeeper Sliwa stopped everything that came their way in the second quarter as neither team scored despite multiple close shots on the goal.

Gurson kicked off the second half with his second tally of the night at 1:54 of the third quarter. Mark Lee responded for Tacoma at 12:12. Less than three minutes later (14:59), Gurson completed his hat trick with his third goal of the night to give the Ambush a 4-2 lead that held until the end of the third quarter. Tacoma drew even in the fourth quarter thanks to back-to-back goals at 5:37 and 7:57 by former Ambush forward Dan Antoniuk. The visitors took the lead at 11:09 when Joey Gjertsen found the back of the net. St. Louis knotted the score at 12:11 on Kentaro Takada’s restart goal off a pass from Arico.

The sudden-death overtime period kept fans on the edge of their seats for eight minutes and 25 seconds until Jamael Cox fired a shot into the net to lock up Tacoma’s victory.

Danny Waltman made 26 saves in 31 save attempts in earning the win for Tacoma. Sliwa turned in a solid performance, making 14 saves on 20 chances for St. Louis. In addition to being a close match, it was also a very physical one. Officials handed out 37 fouls (20 to Tacoma and 17 to St. Louis) and 22 penalty minutes.

The Ambush take to the road for their next match when they journey to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to tangle with the Cedar Rapids Rampage next Saturday, December 19 at 7:05 p.m. The next Ambush home game is slated for Sunday, December 27 at 5:35 p.m. when they host the Milwaukee Wave at the Family Arena.

Season, group and single game tickets are now on sale for all remaining home games. Call the Ambush office at 636-477-6363 for more information. Keep up with Ambush news anytime by visiting the team’s official web site, stlouisambush.com, the Ambush Facebook page, facebook.com/stlouisambush, or on Twitter, twitter.com/stlouisambush.