Lazers Lose to Kansas City Comets in a Shootout, 10-6

Filling in for the recently fired Peter Wall, Lazer interim coach Mike Mahoney did not know quite what to expect Saturday night.

He should have guessed it would be a loss, though.

The Lazers had a big night offensively, but so did the Kansas City Comets as they overpowered the Lazers, 10-6, before a Forum crowd of 5,296.

So Mahoney is 0-1 as a coach, and Kansas City’s Niki Nokolic, the interim coach for the Comets, has his first victory in four attempts.

The Comets, led by three goals from Jan Goossens, simply overwhelmed the Lazers in a defenseless and wild second half.

The Lazers (6-15) were led by Beto, who returned from an early season injury and scored three goals.

The Comets, taking a 3-1 lead into the second half, wasted no time in exploiting the Lazer defense.

Goals by Dale Mitchell and Gino Schiraldi made it 5-1 just two minutes into the third quarter, and the Comets (10-14) had to look back only sparingly the rest of the way.

There were nine goals scored in the third period. The Lazers managed to get within three goals twice, but their usually reliable defense could not stop the balanced Kansas City attack.

Beto scored his first goal 2:38 into the third period, cutting Kansas City’s lead to 5-2, but Louie Nanchoff scored for the Comets shortly after that, making it 6-2. That pattern held for the rest of the game.

In addition to Beto’s hat-trick, the Lazers got second-half goals from Greg Ion and Poli Garcia.

The Comets attack also featured two goals apiece by Louie Nanchoff, Mitchell and Gino Schiraldi, and one by Charlie Greene.

Throughout the first half, the Comets, though outshot, 17-11, were able to get off the better shots.

They took the lead 11:21 into the first quarter when Nanchoff took a center pass from Goossens and beat Lazer goalie David Brcic, giving the Comets a 1-0 lead.

The Lazers managed their only goal of the first half on a corner kick when Ion passed to Lee Cornwell, who blasted a 20-foot shot past Comet goalie Alan Mayer, making it 1-1 9:59 into the second quarter.

But Goossens gave the Comets back the lead at 2-1 with a 20-foot blast past Brcic at 12:34, and Mitchell padded the lead to 3-1 with 1:07 left.