The Squirrels once again played well, won the shot battle, but came up short in a 4-3 loss to 2intheBox on Sunday.

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The Squirrels and 2intheBox played quite the game Wednesday, scoring goals in bunches, but 2intheBox escaped with a 7-6 victory as the Squirrels came inches from scoring the tying goal in the final seconds.

2intheBox scored on the first shift, as Patrick Johns scored the first of his four goals, but Luke Chung and Pat Reilly scored the next two to put the Squirrels up 2-1. Johns scored again, then Nate Groves scored to give the Squirrels a 3-2 lead going into the second period.

The teams took a 12-minute break from scoring in the second period, though a goal by Geoff Grek got called back as the ref didn’t see it go in. Shortly after, a waved-off icing and a bad bounce off of the boards led to two quick 2intheBox goals, and then a third shortly after, as the Squirrels went down 5-3.

Pat Reilly finished his hat trick with two more goals in the third to tie the game, but then 2intheBox scored two more quick goals to go up 7-5. Tony Richelsen made it 7-6 with several minutes left to play, with an assist by goalie Craig Beatty. The Squirrels pulled Beatty with about a minute left to play, and came extremely close to scoring – twice – in the final seconds.

The Squirrels were credited with 36 shots on net, which 2intheBox was credited with 24. Tony Richelsen had four assists.

In their first game of the season, the Squirrels put on a spectacular show, dominating 2intheBox throughout most of the game even before they scored four third period goals for a 5-1 win Thursday.

Granted, 2intheBox only had eight skaters and were missing some of their snipers, but the Squirrels only had nine and also were missing many strong skaters. Regardless, the Squirrels dominated throughout much of the game, though they went down 1-0 in the first period.

The Squirrels finally got on the board during a second period power play, after a series of perfect passes, as Nate Groves netted his first of a natural hat trick.

Early in the third period, Groves had two more, including a snipe from the right wing and a feed from new Squirrel Cassie Campbell out front. Geoff Grek scored later to put the Squirrels up 4-1, and Campbell scored her first as a Squirrel later, to go along with her two assists on two of Groves’s goals. Rylan Gottran had two assists for the Squirrels.

The Squirrels were credited with 51 shots on net, as Dave Tran made 17 of 18 saves in net. Brian Cox also played his first game as a Squirrel on defense.