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Kansas City Comets vs Tacoma Stars
When: Saturday, December 28th, 2019 at 6:05 PM CT
Where: Silverstein Eyes Centers Arena, Independence, Missouri
How to Watch/Stream: Masl.tv/YouTube
The Kansas City Comets will look for their second win of the season over a Western Conference opponent, the Tacoma Stars on Saturday evening.
The Stars enter Saturday’s matchup with three names you need to know: Danny Waltman, Alex Megson, and player-manager Nick Perera.
Waltman returns to Kansas City after being the starting keeper for the Missouri Comets from 2010-2015. The University of Washington graduate led the Comets to their MISL championship in 2014 and an unbeaten regular season in 2014/15. Waltman appeared in 99 regular season games throughout his Comets tenure. Waltman has been in the net for all five games for the stars this season, making 59 saves with a .656 goals against average.
Alex Megson returns to face his former side after appearing in 20 games, scoring eight goals, and winning the 2013/14 MISL championship. Megson has appeared in just three of the team’s five games this season and still has yet to register a shot.
Stars player-manager Nick Perera is MASL’s reigning Most Valuable Player, coming off a season where he recorded 80 points from 39 goals and 41 assits in 24 games. Since 2016, the Spaniard has tallied 162 total points in just 59 games. In five games this season, Perera has scored seven goals and tallied six assists.
The Stars enter Saturday’s matchup coming from a game against St. Louis the night before. The two wins for the Stars this season came against the Turlock Cal Express and the Ontario Fury earlier this month.
The Comets enter Saturday’s game after adding a win and a loss to their record, which now sits at 2-3. Kansas City will hope that John Sosa is back after dealing with injury problems last weekend. Leo Gibson’s offensive production has returned, as he has already scored six and assisted six times from five games.
Saturday’s game will be the fourth ever meeting between these two sides. Leo Gibson had a record-breaking performance in 2015, when he recorded eight goals and four assists in their undefeated season finale. The Comets also defeated them the following season by a score of 12-6 in Kansas City. Tacoma got their first win over the Comets with a 7-6 win in the 2017-18 season in Tacoma.