Squirrels 4, Bullets 3

The Squirrels won in the most absurd way possible Saturday, trailing for the vast majority of the game but slipping in two sets of quickies — including in the last minute of play — to win 4-3 against the Bullets.

The Bullets only had two subs, and the Squirrels had three, so the game wasn’t exactly elegant to begin with. One player on the Bullets, Jon Hoffman, dangled his way to giving the Bullets a 1-0 lead only 47 seconds into the game. The Squirrels, with their one extra player, kept up the pressure, outshooting the Bullets 34-20 in the game, but couldn’t score on Bullets goalie Shane Smith.

Early in the third period, Geoff Grek finally found a way to score, with a laser of a slapshot from the point. About 30 seconds later, he scored again, this time from a wide angle to give the Squirrels a 2-1 lead.

It didn’t last. Hoffman answered twice, scoring twice in a little more than a minute to get the hat trick and put the Bullets up 3-2, with 11 minutes to go in the game.

The Squirrels still couldn’t score. But with about a minute left in the game, the Squirrels got a power play, called time out and pulled their goalie. The Bullets had two injured players on the bench, so basically had no healthy subs. Mike Bartock cut in and scored to tie the game with 39 seconds to go. Then with 11 seconds left, he cut in again, this time scoring glove-side on Smith, to give the Squirrels a 4-3 lead, which held.

The Squirrels only played with five regular players, and called on four subs — Jon Der, Emily Emmons, Pete Gruhn and goalie Jimmy Goodwin.