Jacob Peterson scored on a deflected shot in the eighth minute for Sporting Kansas City, and Patrick Ianni's electrifying volley goal just a few minutes later was enough for the Seattle Sounders to earn a draw 1-1 on Wednesday night.

Kansas City is unbeaten in its last four matches - two wins and two draws - and continues to inch toward the top of Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the Sounders are slumping, winless in their last six league matches and with a rivalry game at Portland coming up Sunday.

Seattle nearly pulled out the victory in the 88th minute when Fredy Montero's shot beat goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, but deflected off both posts and stayed out of the net.

Peterson's goal came when his shot from the edge of the penalty area deflected off Seattle midfielder Osvaldo Alonso and past goalkeeper Andrew Weber. The Sounders got even just seven minutes later when Ianni's volley off a free kick from Mauro Rosales blew past Nielsen. It was the first goals of the season for both Peterson and Ianni.

Seattle was playing its first home match in nearly a month, but saw its longest winless streak since 2009 extended. With the draw, Kansas City snapped a five-game losing streak to the Sounders.

The physical game took an ugly turn during second-half stoppage time when Seattle's Alvaro Fernandez was given a red card for his retaliatory tackle on Roger Espinoza. There was pushing and shoving throughout the night, and plenty of complaints for referee Jair Marrufo, but only a few cards shown.

Following Ianni's goal, Seattle controlled play for the majority of the first half but could never take the lead. Its best attempt came in the 38th minute when Alex Caskey hit a half-volley from well outside the penalty box and Nielsen did well to punch aside the knuckling shot.

Caskey had a chance midway through the second half when he stayed onside during a breakaway and beat Nielsen, but pushed his left-footed shot wide of the far post.

Kansas City nearly took the lead in the 71st minute when defender Chance Myers, pushing forward on a corner kick, saw his header stopped at the goal line by Weber. It was an impressive stop by Weber, making his first start for Seattle after Bryan Meredith allowed four goals to Montreal in a 4-1 defeat last weekend.

Both Weber and Meredith are filling in while starter Michael Gspurning recovers from a hip injury.

Much of the second half was spent watching the Seattle bench to see if Steve Zakuani might make his return after missing more than a year due to a broken lower right leg suffered in April 2011. Zakuani was included among Seattle's reserves for the first time this season, but coach Sigi Schmid chose to use his three subs on Andy Rose, Fernandez and Sammy Ochoa.

Kansas City played without regular starters Bobby Convey and Matt Besler, both out with injuries.