The Squirrels had this one circled on their calendar. Desi Richelsen marked the occasion by taping a Squirrels’ “Watch Your Nuts” poster on the locker room door. The last times these teams met, it ended with top-ranked Dog Star falling 2-1 to the third-ranked Squirrels in the championship game, back in April. This time, there was a bit more offense, and the Squirrels prevailed yet again with a 5-4 victory.

The game didn’t start out well, however, as the Squirrels spotted Dog Star two first-period goals. But the Squirrels exploded for five goals in the second period, including four in a row. Adam Hughes brought the Squirrels back into the game with a point-blank shot in front of the net on a pass from Ben Sumner. When Desi Richelsen found himself on the breakaway, he pushed the puck far in front of him in an effort to draw the goaltender out, but that didn’t work so he instead shot it through the 5-hole.

“I don’t know how that squeezed in,” Richelsen said.

Rob Myers found Ed Bager in front of the net, and Bager whacked in the puck to give the Squirrels a 3-2 lead. Then Tony Richelsen sent a high floater over the goaltender’s shoulder. Dog Star then got a goal, but Chris Long scored on a power play to go up 5-3.

In the third period, Dog Star cut the lead to 5-4 but the Squirrels held on for the rest of the period. With just a few seconds to go, goaltender Drew Thiemann made a save on a Dog Star fast break to preserve the victory.

Adam Hughes, Ed Bager, Desi Richelsen, Chris Long, and Tony Richelsen scored for the Squirrels.

The game featured seven minor penalties on the Squirrels, while Dog Star took nine minors, two misconducts and one game misconduct. Twice Dog Star took penalties while already playing with three skaters, leading to a bit of confusion with the penalty timekeeping.

The Squirrels played without Matt Borlik, Don Marks, Wade Marks, Paul Kobernick, and Sergio Balatan.

The next game is Friday, Jan. 19, at 9:45 p.m. against first-place Gnu in Logsdon.

Quote of the game: “They needed stadium seating in their penalty box” — Desi Richelsen

Squirrels Notes: Longtime ice teammate Adam Hughes announced that he will be leaving the area t the end of the month.

D. Richelsen Lifts Squirrels

Defenseman Desi Richelsen is known as many things around the league, but scorer isn’t one of them. In the Squirrels 4-3 victory against Dog Star Thursday night, Richelsen finally got that label, while not losing his regular reputation, either.

The Squirrels got the scoring starting in the first period as Greg Wenograd slammed home a shot from the left side. Dog Star answered later on a power play.

In the second period, Richelsen wristed in a shot from the point to put the Squirrels up 2-1. Dog Star scored short-handed, and the game was tied going into the final period.

Midway through the third, Matt Borlik scored, and Richelsen followed less than a minute later to give the Squirrels a comfortable 4-2 lead with 6:35 remaining.

Both teams took a couple of penalties, including a major-misconduct slash against Dog Star in the final few minutes. With 11 seconds remaining, Dog Star scored, and then almost did again in the final seconds, but the Squirrels held on for their first win against them this season.

Along with the two goals, giving him three on the season, Richelsen had two penalties and scuffled with a few players on Dog Star, as expected.

Dog Star badly outshot the Squirrels, 24-14, as Drew Thiemann made 21 saves in net. Ed Bager had three assists.

The Squirrels played without Don Marks, Phil Van der Vossen, and Rob Myers.

The next game is Thursday, March 16, at 10 p.m. in the Patrick rink against the Vikings. The Squirrels lost to them 4-2 last week while skating with only nine players.

In a matchup of the two best defenses in the league, Dog Star again ended up on top of the Screaming Squirrels, winning 4-2 on Sunday in the first league game of the new year. While Dog Star ranks only fourth in offense, they have only lost one game all season. The Squirrels dropped their fourth.

Dog Star took an early lead, scoring two minutes into the game and again later in the first period. They went up 3-0 in the second period with a short-handed goal.

The Squirrels turned it around late in the second period as Ed Bager connected with Rob Myers, who shot the puck into the right corner of the net to cut the lead. In the last five minutes of the second period, Dog Star took five minor penalties. During that time, Phil Van der Vossen swatted in a rebound before drawing another penalty as the puck went in. But the Squirrels could score no more, despite having a two-man advantage for several moments.

Dog Star scored again late in the third period, just as a Squirrels penalty expired. The Squirrels were outshot, 25-17.

The Squirrels played without Desi Richelson, Charles Wolstein, and Jared Genser. The next game is Jan. 22, at 9 p.m. against the Wrong Stuff in Resor.

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.