KANSAS CITY, MO. — Blast forward Lee Tschantret knows he'll probably get fined for this. He couldn't care less.
To say Tschantret was unhappy with the officiating following Kansas City's 22-21 win over the Blast last night at Kemper Arena would be the ultimate understatement.
Tschantret was ejected only 2:33 into the game because he bumped senior referee Mark Del Corral. Del Corral later requested a police escort off the field at halftime for himself and his crew.
"He's an official? It's atrocious," said Tschantret, who entered the game as the Blast's fourth-leading scorer with 23 points. "This is something that can't be. I had 50 Comets fans come up to me and apologize. They didn't come here to see the refs. That's horrible.
"These are our jobs on the line. The referees don't worry about it because they have no accountability. Our commissioner [Steve Ryan] has a lot of lip service that things are changing. But what are they doing about the officiating? It [officiating] is horrible, it's been horrible, and it's ruining the game."
Assistant referee Graeme Florance said the officials had no comment on Tschantret's outburst.
The Comets, meanwhile, ruined what earlier had looked like a terrific thing the Blast had going for it.
Baltimore (6-8) took a 17-7 lead after scoring seven points in a 45-second span of the second half and appeared on the verge of its first road win of the season when midfielder Danny Kelly's three-point goal 55 seconds into the third quarter capped the blitz.
But Kansas City is as good at home (5-0) as the Blast is bad away from Baltimore Arena (0-6) and began to slice into the lead.
Kansas City (7-8) scored eight in a row during a key stretch in the third quarter. Six of those came on two three-pointers by defender Alex Zotinca. The Comets eventually took the lead for good, 20-19, on Nino DaSilva's unassisted goal at 5:08 of the fourth quarter.
Comets forward Wes Wade gave Kansas City a three-point cushion as he got his third goal of the game for the hat trick at 9:29.
But the Blast wasn't finished. Giuliano Celenza scored a two-point goal at 11:24 to cut the Comets' lead to one point. The Blast applied the heat on Kansas City in the final seconds, including a rocket off the glass above Kansas City goalkeeper Chris Damico's head, but Baltimore failed to overcome the deficit.
Blast coach Kevin Healey also was upset with the officiating, but he didn't spew venom with the same force that Tschantret did.
"We shouldn't have blown the lead," Healey said. "We should have won the game. We should do better than that. We should have done better keeping the ball."
Wade said the Comets got a lift at halftime from coach Zoran Savic,who must've sounded a little bit like Scrooge.
"Zoran threatened us, and he said none of us could go home for Christmas if we didn't play better," Wade said. "That put fire in the guys. We decided to come out and play a little bit."
The Blast's road woes are pretty obvious, especially in Kansas City. The Blast has won only once here, that coming Jan. 24, 1993. The Blast fell to 1-9 all-time in Kansas City.
Blast 6 8 5 2 - 21
Kansas City 5 2 8 7 - 22
First quarter: 1. Kansas City, DaSilva, 1 pt., 2:37; 2. Blast, Johnson, 2 pt., (Bowers), 5:00; 3. Kansas City, Houser, 2 pt., (Zotinca), 6:28; 4. Blast, Walker, 2 pt., (Cabral), 10:47; 5. Blast, Bowers, 2 pt., 13:17; 6. Kansas City, Wade, 2 pt., (Koetters), 13:40.
Second quarter: 7. Blast, Kelly, 3 pt., (Santoro), 0:19. 8. Blast, Cabral, 1 pt., 1:27; 9. Kansas City, Houser, 2 pt., (Zotinca), 5:05; 10. Blast, Walker, 2 pt., (Kelly), 14:20; 11. Blast, Marcano, 2 pt., (Barber), 14:47
Third quarter: 12. Blast, Kelly, 3 pt., 0:55; 13. Kansas City, Zotinca, 3 pt., (Harding), 4:13; 14. Kansas City, Wade, 2 pt., (Delevski), 6:34; 15. Kansas City, Zotinca, 3 pt., 12:47; 16. Blast, Bowers, 2 pt., (Barber), 14:26.
Fourth quarter: 17. Kansas City, Delevski, 3 pt., (Wade), 3:17; 18. Kansas City, DaSilva, 2 pt., 5:08; 19. Kansas City, Wade, 2 pt., (Delevski), 9:29; 20. Celenza, 2 pt., (Neely), 11:24.
Shots on goal: Blast 5-7-3-2 - 17; Kansas City 11-5-10-6 - 32. Goalkeepers: Blast, Hileman, 29 shots, 19 saves; Kansas City, Damico, 17 shots,7 saves. A - 4,415.
