Before the game, the Squirrels knew that the best team to play against after a long break off the ice was the last-place Nordiques. And it showed, because despite Thursday’s 5-1 win, the two teams skating together looked like lousy Bronze 3 teams instead of a match-up of one of the top teams in Bronze 2 against one with the worst record.

Rob Myers scored twice, including a beautiful post-ringing slap-shot, while Tony Richelsen, Tero Moberg, and Jon Danziger had the others. In net, Nabil Allaoua made 21 saves, including some in the third period while the game was still in reach for the Nordiques.

The Squirrels were losing 2-1 going into the third period Saturday to a team that hadn’t won a game all summer, with four extra subs on the bench. Fortunately, the Squirrels scored three goals in the third period for a 4-2 victory.

While the Squirrels’ offense has, at times, struggled in recent weeks, there was no shortage of goals in last night’s domination of the Nordiques. With 2 goals each from Brent Machado and Bob Valdes, the Squirrels put up a 6 spot and cruised to a 6-1 victory, bringing their record on the season to 6-4-1, good for 13 standings points and 3rd place in the Bronze 2 Division.

Valdes opened the scoring by using his speed to gain the zone then slipped a wrist shot along the ice and through the 5-hole after cutting to the middle of the zone. Chi Pham followed up a few minutes later with his 1st of the season on a nice rush through the neutral zone and after beating more than one defender.

The second period saw 2 more goals from the Squirrels, the first on the powerplay coming off the stick of Machado as a result of a nice sequence of passing plays that undoubtedly should have resulted in more than just the one assist awarded to Don Marks.  The second Squirrels goal of the period was scored a mere 2 minutes 10 seconds later by Valdes, his 2nd of the game. Dougie Winters was credited with the lone assist. The refs were apparently being very stingy in dolling out assists. On 6 goals, they only awarded 3 assists. What up wit dat? That is not at all indicative of the strong passing efforts of all Squirrels on this night.

The third period saw another 2 goals from the Squirrels (including a second powerplay goal) sandwiched around the lone Nordiques goal scored by Carl Fairbank. Tony Richelsen scored a water bottle-jumping top shelf wrist shot from a tough angle that would impress Alex Ovechkin. Brent Machado finished the scoring off with a weird rainbow shot that confused and seemed to paralyze Nordiques goalie, Terri Ball.

For the game, the Squirrels were a perfect 4 for 4 on the penalty kill and a perfect 2 for 2 on the power play. How many times has that happened in a Squirrels ice game? I’d venture rarely if ever. Goalie Eric Coulson was credited with 16 saves on 17 shots and made a few quality stops moving laterally.

Next up for the Squirrels is the 2nd meeting of the year against the Piranhas on January 16th. The Squirrels won the 1st battle in a closely contested 3-2 game back in October.