Cleveland Triumphs to Lead Series, 2-0
RICHFIELD, Ohio — Michael King celebrated his 28th birthday by scoring three goals as the Cleveland Crunch beat the Kansas City Comets 7-5 Saturday night and took a 2-0 lead in the MSL’s Eastern Division best-of-seven playoffs.
The series shifts to Kansas City for Game 3 Wednesday.
King scored the game’s first two goals 44 seconds apart in the first period. Kansas City’s David Doyle responded with a power-play goal to make it 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
Tony Glavin scored the only goal of the second period, evening the score 2-2 at halftime.
Cleveland’s Hector Marinaro scored a power play goal in the third quarter and Zorin Karic also scored to put Cleveland ahead 4-2. The Comets cut the margin to one on Doug Neely’s first postseason goal at 7:30.
Cleveland ended the rally with goals by Ali Kazemani, Michael Sweeney and King’s final score for a 7-3 lead at the end of three quarters.
More to Read
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.