Squirrels 6, Outsiders 5 (SO)

The Squirrels came out on top of one of their hardest-fought games of the season Tuesday, prevailing in a 6-round shootout against the Outsiders, 6-5.

After a scoreless first period, the Outsiders quickly struck, scoring twice in the first two minutes. The Squirrels countered, as Desmond Richelsen and Don Marks each tallied to tie the game.

At one point, Brent Machado scored what should have been a short-handed goal, but the goal was called off due to a ‘safety issue’ involved another Squirrels player who was cross-checked on the same play. Down a man in the second, Danziger swooped in, shot the puck, and was brutally cross-checked. Machado scored on the rebound, but the ref blew the play dead to see that Danziger was okay. He was, and the Squirrels instead got a 4-minute power play instead of a much-needed goal.

Richelsen scored again early in the third, but the Outsiders regained the lead with two more goals. Danziger tied the game shortly after, but the Outsiders took the lead down the stretch.

Things got extremely chippy and there was plenty of trash-talking, and things turned even uglier as Doug Winters had his second run-in with Outsider Robert Donahue in the period. This time, Donahue tried to fight Winters in the corner, grabbing his head and tackling him. He was initially called for head-contact, but the ref downgraded it to a 5-minute major for roughing since head contact carries with it an automatic ejection and suspension. Needless to say, it was head contact.

Machado scored on that power play, and the Squirrels held on for the 5-5 tie.

In the shootout, Danziger, Neil Shah and Chi Pham scored, all using the same deek, and Torrey Pocock kept four of the Outsider’s six shots out of the net.