The St. Louis Ambush dropped a 7-5 contest to the Wichita B-52s Saturday night, January 10 at Hartman Arena. The Ambush record slipped to 3-7, while the B-52s improved to 6-6. The Ambush and B-52s traded goals in the first quarter, with Byron Alvarez scoring first for Wichita and David Paul answering for St. Louis.
Wichita opened the gap in the second quarter with two goals by Brent Hopson and another from Alex Moseley. Richard Schmermund scored St. Louis’ lone tally of the quarter. Wichita enjoyed a 4-2 lead at the halftime break.
Moseley scored his second of the contest at 11:37 of the third quarter
to increase Wichita’s lead to 5- 2, but St. Louis answered just 16 seconds later when a header from Blake Ordell found the back of the net. Stefan St. Louis scored for the Ambush on a power play to close the gap to 5-4, where it remained for the rest of the period.
The Ambush drew even early in the final stanza (1:56) on a sliding goal by Axel Duarte. Wichita took back the lead (6-5) with just 50 seconds remaining when Alvarez scored his second of the game.
Chris Mattingly was then brought in as the sixth attacker for St. Louis, but that strategy only resulted in an empty-netgoal by Matt Clare with eight seconds remaining to nail the 7-5 final for the B-52s.
Saturday’s match was the first of three consecutive away games for the Ambush, who face the Missouri Comets next Friday, January 16, then return to Hartman Arena for a rematch with the B-52s on Saturday, January 17. The Ambush return home to the Family Arena when they host the Tulsa Revolution for the first time ever on Friday, January 3 at 7:35 p.m.
