Author Archive: Ben Sumner

Squirrels 4, Meltdown 3

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Most of the Squirrels haven’t played a game of ice hockey since winning the championship back in early April, so it wasn’t a surprise that they got off to a slow start. And now that the league is aggressively enforcing stick penalties, it wasn’t a surprise the Squirrels spent a good portion of the game in the box. Despite that, their winning ways continued Friday with a come-from-behind victory against summer C-3 champs Meltdown, 4-3, in the Patrick rink.

The rust showed in the first period, however, as the Squirrels went down 2-0, giving up a power play goal and one off of a turnover.

At 6:10 of the second period, Don Marks got the team’s first goal of the season to cut Meltdown’s lead to 2-1. But Meltdown struck again with 31 seconds remaining in the second period to go up 3-1.

That’s when the Squirrels’ rust wore off. Ten seconds into the third period, Adam Hughes flipped in a shot. Less than a minute later, Tony Richelsen scored. The score was suddenly 3-3.

While the Squirrels spent much of the first and second period killing penalties, Meltdown starting taking them in the third – five minors – and the Squirrels took advantage. Rob Myers capitalized on a two-man power play at 10:42 of the period to give the Squirrels the lead, and the score held the rest of the game.

Drew Thiemann made 26 saves for the Squirrels, who put up 35 shots, including 13 in the final period. The Squirrels played without Greg Wenograd, Sergio Balatan, Desi Richelsen, Jon Magi and Matt Borlik. The newest Squirrels, Brent Machado and Paul Kobernick, played their first game for the team.

The next game is Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 10:30 p.m. against Southwest Airlines in Resor.

Winter Ice Schedule Posted

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The winter ice schedule has been posted on the schedule page. The Squirrels will defend their championship against a mixture of teams from last season, including Southwest Airlines, Nordiques, The Wrong Stuff, and Dog Star; teams from the summer of 2005 including the Vikings and Dead Kings; and teams they’ve never played before, like the Mighty Old Ducks, DC Fire, Exit First Realty, Meltdown, Scurvy, and Gnu.

They will be playing seven Sundays, four Tuesdays, four Wednesdays, one Thursday, three Fridays, and one Saturday.

Machado Joins Squirrels

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Brent Machado will be joining the Squirrels ice team. Machado grew up in Scaggsville and played hockey at the Columbia rink for a few years when he was younger. This past winter he started playing again and joined Blades of Steel with Squirrels forwards Matt Borlik and Chris Long. Machado is a Capitals fan and lives in Silver Spring,

Roller news: Enigma, who defeated the Squirrels 1-0 earlier in the week, defeated The 5 Holes, 3-1, to win the C league championship on Thursday.

2006 Roller Stats and Results

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Date Result W/L/T
4/19/2006 Squirrels 8, Storm 1 W
4/25/2006 Squirrels 11, Storm 1 W
5/4/2006 Mors Ab Alto 3, Squirrels 1 L
5/11/2006 5-Holes 4, Squirrels 0 L
5/12/2006 Snipe 5, Squirrels 4 L
8/18/2006 Squirrels 4, Bullhawks 1 W
5/26/2006 Squirrels 8, Mors ab Alto 1 W
5/30/2006 Silver Spring 4, Squirrels 1 W
6/6/2006 Squirrels 7, Enigma 2 W
6/15/2006 Squirrels 8, Storm 0 W
6/21/2006 Squirrels 6, Chupacabras 5 W
6/26/2006 Squirrels 4, 5-Holes 3 W
7/12/2006 Squirrels 4, Chupacabras 3 W
7/19/2006 Squirrels 7, Bullhawks 6 W
7/28/2006 Snipe 5, Squirrels 3 L
8/3/2006 Squirrels 6, Silver Spring 4 W
8/10/2006 Squirrels 2, Enigma 2 T
8/11/2006 Squirrels 4, Silver Spring 1 W
8/16/2006 Squirrels 7, Mors ab Alto 1 W
8/24/2006 Squirrels 13, Bullhawks 3 W
8/29/2006 Playoffs: Enigma 1, Squirrels 0 L

Scoring

Playoffs G A* Playoff Goals
Jeff Ford 21 3 0
Ben Sumner 17 8 0
Robert Myers 11 1 3
Kit Watson 10 1
Juan Canchasto 6 0
Ed Bager 6 2 0
Jon Magi 4 2
Phil Van der Vossen 3 3
Matt Borlik 3 1
Chi Pham 3 4 1
Desmond Richelsen 3 5 0
Don Marks 3 1 0
Chris Long 3 0
Tony Richelsen 2 3 2

*Full assist data was lost but counted when included in game reports.

Playoffs: Enigma 1, Squirrels 0

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Three seconds remained in the game. With the Squirrels goaltender pulled and an extra skater on the rink, defender Kit Watson took a slap shot from just inside the center line. Through several screens, Enigma’s goaltender saved it – and the game – and the Squirrels lost their first playoff game in two years, 1-0, on Monday.

The game was bound to be low-scoring. The Squirrels and Enigma were one-two in defense, and had similar offensive numbers. They both finished the regular season with 27 points, though the Squirrels won the tiebreaker. The Squirrels clobbered Enigma, 7-1, earlier in the season, but a 2-2 game a couple of weeks ago made it clear that the teams were pretty much even down the stretch. And only a fluky goal would be the difference in a playoff game.

At 13:54 of the second period, a turnover, a shot off the post, a bad bounce, and a knuckler shot went past Squirrels goaltender Bob Sewell, and that was it. The Squirrels managed 21 shots while Enigma posted 19.

Enigma advances to Thursday’s finals against the winner of the 5 Holes-Snipe match, which already had four-times as many goals scored in the first half than the Squirrels-Enigma game.

The Squirrels played without Don Marks, Juan Canchasto and Matt Borlik.

Despite the loss, the Squirrels still gathered – as they usually do – at Barbeque Wings & Beer in Cloverly, showing no shame in a loss after posting a 14-6-1 record, a second-place regular season finish, and the best defense and goaltending in the division. The Squirrels will now turn their attention to ice, where they will attempt to defend their championship in the winter’s C league.