Roller Playoffs: Squirrels Fall in Finals

The Screaming Squirrels’ season came to an end Tuesday in a 4-1 loss to the Dinosaurs in the Bronze Division championship game.

The Dinosaurs, a Silver Division team that got moved down when that division folded, lost only one game all season – to the Squirrels – and played through other teams’ best efforts in the playoffs en route to their title.

Mark Tessar got the scoring started with a slap shot in the first period, giving the Squirrels the initial lead. Then Dinosaurs scored twice, once on the power play, to take a 2-1 lead into the second period. They scored twice more while the Squirrels came close several times to making the game more interesting.

Longtime Squirrels goalie Bob Sewell played his heart out, making many spectacular saves. It’s likely this was Sewell’s last game, as the 58-year-old will likely be having offseason surgery.

Tuesday’s game was the first time the Squirrels’ inline team was the runner up at the end of the playoffs. The last loss in a championship game came in the second game of a best-of-three series back in 2003 (with the deciding game being cancelled due to Hurricane Irene). The Squirrels have won two titles since the 2003 split, once in 2005 and another in 2011.