Squirrels 3, Scurvy 2 (SO)

The Squirrels didn’t have a good game, yet somehow won their 10th in a row with a 3-2 shootout victory against Scurvy, which put them in first place for the first time this season.

Earlier in the evening, Blades of Steel lost for the first time in ten games, which gave the Squirrels the opportunity to leapfrog them in the standings. And the Squirrels did so by using their goaltender, Adam Hart, who was highly aware that he would hurt his own team’s place in the standings if he won the game for the Squirrels. Regular goaltender Nabil Allaoua didn’t make the game because he was out celebrating his birthday.

The Squirrels came fairly close to losing, but not because of Hart’s play. The Squirrels did almost nothing the first two periods, going down 1-0 early and wasting nearly 7 minutes of power play time in the second, plus a couple of 5-on-3 chances in the third.

Finally, Tero Moberg found the back of the net to tie the game, only for Scurvy to retake the lead a couple minutes later on the power play. With five minutes left, Tony Richelsen scored, then a minute later Mark Tessar scored what the Squirrels thought was the lead goal. Instead, Tessar was called for hooking on the play, so the goal was washed out and Scurvy had a power play. The Squirrels killed it, then took two more penalties in the closing two minutes but held on to force a shootout.

Tessar and Jon Danziger missed the first two chances, but Tony Richelsen and Desi Richelsen scored the final two attempts, while Hart made the final save to secure the win.