Squirrels roller captain Edmund Bager II ran in the 30th annual Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 30, finishing 8013th overall with a time of 4:34:56. When asked how running a marathon compares to hockey, Bager replied, “Dude, it’s apples and oranges, hockey’s much more fun and can be played anytime, while the marathon is something you have to train for to accomplish.” Bager, 35, missed two ice games while preparing for the race. “I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad it’s over, now I can focus on hockey for the remainder of the year,” he said.
Author Archive: Ben Sumner
Schedule Changes Posted
The Gardens Ice House announced Thursday that effective Sunday, Nov. 13, the winless Clippers will move to the C3B division from C3A. The Squirrels will play them on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 10:15 p.m. in Resor. To make room for that game, the Feb. 19 game against Syracuse has been dropped.
Squirrels 6, Vikings 5
It wasn’t until halfway through the second period Sunday when the Squirrels started their comeback. Down 3-1, they scored four unanswered goals to take the lead, then added another in the third period and held on for a 6-5 victory against the Vikings.
Jon Magi got the scoring started in the first period with a shot from the left blue line. The Squirrels then took two overlapping penalties, giving the Vikings a two-man advantage for 45 seconds. While the Squirrels initially kept the pressure on, they got caught deep and the Vikings capitalized twice in the last two minutes of the first period.
The Vikings scored again in the second period, and five minutes later the Squirrels took over. Playing in his first game since the summer season ended, Juan Canchasto scored to cut the lead to 3-2. Four minutes later, the Viking’s goaltender gave up a rebound off of Canchasto’s shot, and Ben Sumner hit the spinning puck into tie the game. Don Marks scored the next two goals in the next minute and a half, taking one coast-to-coast and slapping in another off the faceoff to put the Squirrels ahead by two.
The Vikings cut the Squirrels lead to one a third of the way through the third period. With a little less than three minutes remaining, Magi scored from nearly the exact same position as his first goal, with a similar shot. Down by two again, the Vikings rushed the net and scored, giving themselves one last opportunity with a minute remaining. The Squirrels held on.
Tony Richelson, Desi Richelson, Ed Bager, Rob Myers, Greg Wenograd and Chris Long missed the game for the Squirrels. Drew Thiemann made 22 saves in net. The Squirrels used two lines of forwards with an extra winger, and four defensemen.
The next game is Sunday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. against the Maryland Mutineers in Logsdon.
Dog Star 2, Squirrels 1
Playing against the undefeated Dog Star on Thursday, the Screaming Squirrels knew they had to get at least a few goals to win. Dog Star has the stingiest defense in the division, but hasn’t put up too many goals themselves. The Squirrels could only get one in, and fell 2-1.
Early in the first period, a quick whistle robbed the Squirrels of a goal. The referee lost site of the puck, which was never covered, and stopped the play a split second before the Squirrels shot it in.
A couple of sloppy plays within a minute of each other only five minutes into the game left the Squirrels behind 2-0, and that score stood for the rest of the first period and almost all of the second. Rob Myers finally put the Squirrels on the board after sending in a rebound off of Jon Magi’s shot from the point during a power play.
The teams combined for 15 penalties, most of them in the second and third periods, many of them offsetting or overlapping which left the teams skating 4 on 4.
Ed Bager, Chris Long, Jared Genser and Greg Wenograd missed the game for the Squirrels. Chi Pham subbed on defense. Tony Richelson, Don Marks and Sergio Balatan moved up to forward. Drew Thiemann made 22 saves in net, and the Squirrels posted 22 shots.
The next game is Sunday, at 9 p.m. against the Vikings in the Resor rink.
In other Squirrels news, the roller championship t-shirts arrived. See Ben Sumner to receive one.
Squirrels 4, Southwest Airlines 1
If Southwest Airlines had anything going for them Tuesday, it was goaltending. But the shots kept coming and the Squirrels finally broke away for a 4-1 victory.
Southwest Airlines scored first on a shot that the Squirrels said never went in. The puck clanged off the crossbar and bounced to the side, but the referee blew the whistle and signaled a goal. Thirteen seconds later, Matt Borlik evened the score, and that stood throughout the rest of the first period and nearly all of the second.
With 16 seconds remaining in the second period, Brian Jackson sent a shot around a defenseman and through the pads of the goaltender to give the Squirrels a 2-1 lead. It was the only shot that went in after 16 others by the Squirrels in that period.
The Squirrels kept up the pressure in the third period and Southwest Airlines often had trouble clearing the zone. Borlik netted two more and the Squirrels earned their third win of the season. Goaltender Brian Rimm faced nine shots, while the Squirrels posted 42, their most since March when they had 46 in a game.
Charles Wolstein and Chris Long missed the game for the Squirrels. Ben Sumner missed on a rarely-called a penalty shot in the second period.
The next game is Thursday, Oct. 27 at 10:20 p.m. against Dog Star in Logsdon.