Champions!

(Back, left-to-right) Adam Baranowski, Mark Tessar, Charles Wolstein, Tony Richelsen, Desi Richelsen, Tero Moberg, Don Marks, Tom Fischer, Rob Myers.
(Front, left-to-right) Bob Valdes, Paul Kobernick, Nabil Allaoua, Brent MAchado, Jon Danziger, Ben Sumner, Doug Winters.

The Screaming Squirrels capped off a spectacular season Sunday with a hard-fought 2-1 victory against the top-seeded Blades of Steel, who had beaten the Squirrels in all three meetings during the regular season.

The Squirrels went down 1-0 at 7:30 of the first period, but Mark Tessar tied it up only 1:35 later. As the seconds ticked down in the period, Paul Kobernick received the puck at an awkward angle in front of the net, but his spin move backhand-buzzer beater got past BoS goalie Adam Hart to give the Squirrels a 2-1 lead. That’s all the scoring, but two long periods remained.

The Squirrels spent much of the second period killing penalties, as they took six minors. Though the penalty-killing units kept any more goals from being scored, the Squirrels couldn’t get any insurance themselves as Hart kept robbing them on every opportunity.

With only two minutes left in the third period, the Squirrels took two more penalties, giving BoS a 6-on-3 with their goalie pulled. The Squirrels fought hard in the remaining minutes to seal the victory, their first ice championship since 2010.

The Richelsen brothers.

Cousins Nick and Kendall Richelsen root for the Squirrels.