Up 5-3 early in the second period, the Squirrels took a tumble Thursday, giving up four straight to fall to the Dinosaurs, 7-6.

The Squirrels had golden opportunities to defeat last season’s nemesis Tuesday, leading 3-2 after the half but giving up three straight, including an empty-netter, to fall 5-3.

The Screaming Squirrels’ season came to an end Tuesday in a 4-1 loss to the Dinosaurs in the Bronze Division championship game.

The Dinosaurs, a Silver Division team that got moved down when that division folded, lost only one game all season – to the Squirrels – and played through other teams’ best efforts in the playoffs en route to their title.

Mark Tessar got the scoring started with a slap shot in the first period, giving the Squirrels the initial lead. Then Dinosaurs scored twice, once on the power play, to take a 2-1 lead into the second period. They scored twice more while the Squirrels came close several times to making the game more interesting.

Longtime Squirrels goalie Bob Sewell played his heart out, making many spectacular saves. It’s likely this was Sewell’s last game, as the 58-year-old will likely be having offseason surgery.

Tuesday’s game was the first time the Squirrels’ inline team was the runner up at the end of the playoffs. The last loss in a championship game came in the second game of a best-of-three series back in 2003 (with the deciding game being cancelled due to Hurricane Irene). The Squirrels have won two titles since the 2003 split, once in 2005 and another in 2011.

The Dinosaurs got revenge against the team that dealt them their only loss of the season, this time crushing the Squirrels, 9-1. The Squirrels actually had scored a second goal, which the refs missed but the Dinosaurs acknowledged had gone in. It was the last game of the regular season for the Squirrels.

The Squirrels dealt the first-place Dinosaurs their first loss of the season Tuesday, clamping down defensively and taking advantage of a few fast freaks and a couple of turnovers en route to a 5-2 victory.

Despite the Dinosaurs controlling most of the game as if they were on a power play, the Squirrels kept them to the outside, and Bob Sewell made plenty of saves. Up 2-0 on goals by Stu Miller and Ben Sumner, the Squirrels had a third one called off due to a quick whistle.

The Dinosaurs finally scored in the second period, short-handed, but the Casey Carpenter and Mark Tessar each scored unassisted off of turnovers to put the game out of reach. The Dinosaurs scored once more off of a slap shot before Carpenter added an empty-netter.