When the Squirrels barely beat Silver Spring last week, they attributed it to Silver Spring having only one substitute. On Thursday, Silver Spring had a full bench, yet the Squirrels skated away with a convincing 4-1 victory.
Kit Watson got the scoring started with a spin-o-rama backhand shot that trickled in at 12:30 of the first period. At 7:07, Desi Richelsen exited the penalty box, skated directly toward the net, got a pass from Don Marks and shot it in to put the Squirrels up 2-0 on the power play. Two minutes later, Rob Myers put the Squirrels up 3-0 on another power play. The Squirrels killed a brief two-man advantage for Silver Spring before one of its players got nailed with a two-minute penalty and a misconduct.
Midway through the second period, Watson scored on a half-rink slapshot to put the Squirrels up 4-0. At 5:47 of the second period, Silver Spring was called for tripping Ed Bager. Glad he got the call, Bager pumped his fist and said “Yes!” The referee then called him for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, perhaps the most bizarre call the Squirrels have ever taken. Silver Spring broke Bob Sewell’s shutout bid on a power play with 1:35 remaining.
Silver Spring and the Squirrels each had 22 shots on net, 8 in the first period, 14 in the second. Sewell made 21 saves. The Squirrels played without Tony Richelsen, Matt Borlik, Chris Long, and Jeff Ford, who was serving a one-game suspension for his kneeing penalty in Wednesday’s game against Enigma.
The last game of the regular season is Tuesday, at 8:30 p.m. against Mors ab Alto. The Squirrels can still finish in third place with a victory, or if Enigma loses to the Bullhawks on Wednesday.