Comets Roll Past Milwaukee, Now Head to Baltimore

The Missouri Comets used a big second quarter to help them top the Milwaukee Wave and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where they'll play Baltimore in a home and away series starting tomorrow in Baltimore. Missouri scored four unanswered goals in the quarter and added two more in the third as Missouri won the game 8-2 to advance to play the Blast.

The two teams traded goals in the first quarter, with Vahid Assadpour's goal just over three minutes in being canceled out by Tony Walls only a minute later.  The second quarter is where the Comets really jumped on Milwaukee. Just 13 seconds in, Kiel Williams scored to put the Comets back on top. Bryan Perez made it 3-1 right before the half way point after some great work by Alain Matingou. Later in the half, the Comets had their first of three power plays after the Wave were penalized a second time for a substitution violation. Josh Gardner ended up scoring the goal with just under five remaining in the half as his shot went off Victor Quiroz and into the net. Assadpour finished off the scoring in the first half off an assist from Leo Gibson with just 10 seconds left in the half.

The third quarter saw Missouri again jump out early and score another early goal as Brian Harris got on the board with a shot from distance just three and a half minutes in. The Comets extended their lead to 7-1 on another power play goal, this time with Gardner playing provider and setting up Gibson for his first goal of the night. The fourth quarter saw the Wave almost immediately switch to the sixth attacker, pulling Nick Vorberg as soon as the Wave won possession back. The extra attacker paid off with more possession for the Wave and they found an early goal through former Comet, Stefan St Louis who did a good job dancing around two defenders at the top of the box before firing past Danny Waltman to make it 7-2. That's as close as the Wave would get though. They weren't able to take advantage of the extra attacker any more, and around the half way point picked up another blue card. While the Comets pushed to attack, looking for another goal, the Comets also were able to kill two more minutes keeping the Wave pinned in their own end for much of it. Finally with under a minute left the Comets were able to break the Wave's sixth attacker pressure and find a goal as Assadpour finished off his hattrick burying a shot in the far corner.

With the win the Comets will now play two games this weekend against the Baltimore Blast, Friday in Baltimore and Sunday at the Independence Events Center. After 18 days off, the Comets will now play three games in a four day span with two trips halfway across the country in between; it'll certainly put their legs to the test.