With only two subs on the bench for most of the game, the Squirrels earned themselves a 4-3 shootout victory against Scurvy on Friday.

The Squirrels went up 1-0 in the first as Ben Sumner crashed the net and chipped in a pass from Doug Winters. In the second, Tero Moberg cleaned up the garbage in the crease to put the Squirrels up 2-0. Off the ensuing faceoff, Scurvy’s Brandon Bong kept his team in the game with a goal. Several minutes later, Bong got a lucky break when a Squirrels’ stick got caught in the boards, springing him to an opening as he tied the game. Bong scored his third of the game not long into the third period. But only 12 seconds after that, Rob Myers tied the game.

The Squirrels then took a minor penalty and lost a defenseman with about 10 minutes remaining, leaving the Squirrels with one sub down the stretch. The Squirrels held on to force overtime, when Tero Moberg and Doug Winters each scored to give the Squirrels the victory.

Ryan Griffiths made 39 saves for the Squirrels.

The Squirrels took nearly an entire period to start scoring goals, but once it happened, the floodgates opened en route to a 9-2 win against Scurvy. Mark Tessar scored with about 30 seconds remaining in the first period, but the game changed for good when a double hooking call on Scurvy gave the Squirrels a stacked power play, and the scored twice and never looked back. Scurvy did cut the lead to 5-2 but the Squirrels scored four more after that.

The Squirrels didn’t have a good game, yet somehow won their 10th in a row with a 3-2 shootout victory against Scurvy, which put them in first place for the first time this season.

Earlier in the evening, Blades of Steel lost for the first time in ten games, which gave the Squirrels the opportunity to leapfrog them in the standings. And the Squirrels did so by using their goaltender, Adam Hart, who was highly aware that he would hurt his own team’s place in the standings if he won the game for the Squirrels. Regular goaltender Nabil Allaoua didn’t make the game because he was out celebrating his birthday.

The Squirrels came fairly close to losing, but not because of Hart’s play. The Squirrels did almost nothing the first two periods, going down 1-0 early and wasting nearly 7 minutes of power play time in the second, plus a couple of 5-on-3 chances in the third.

Finally, Tero Moberg found the back of the net to tie the game, only for Scurvy to retake the lead a couple minutes later on the power play. With five minutes left, Tony Richelsen scored, then a minute later Mark Tessar scored what the Squirrels thought was the lead goal. Instead, Tessar was called for hooking on the play, so the goal was washed out and Scurvy had a power play. The Squirrels killed it, then took two more penalties in the closing two minutes but held on to force a shootout.

Tessar and Jon Danziger missed the first two chances, but Tony Richelsen and Desi Richelsen scored the final two attempts, while Hart made the final save to secure the win.

An early Friday night game proved to be a tough one to make on time, but that mattered very little as the Squirrels beat Scurvy, 7-0, with only three subs. Rob Myers scored two first-period goals before Mark Tessar’s hat-trick, plus goals from Tom Fischer and Tony Richelsen, forced a running clock. Nabil Allaoua had a 15-save shutout for the Squirrels.