With longtime teammate Bob Sewell making his first start for the team in a couple years, the Squirrels outshot and outscored Team Mylec on Thursday en route to an 8-5 win. The Squirrels benefitted from two shorthanded goals, and also a first period hat trick by Mark Tessar.

The Screaming Squirrels advanced to their first roller finals game in six years Wednesday with a 5-3 win against 5th-seeded Team Mylec, thanks to four second period goals and great goaltending by Stew Miller.

The Squirrels got on the board first as Ben Sumner stole a puck from behind the net and centered to Brian Iciek. But Team Mylec tied it up with 14 seconds remaining in the period to take a 1-1 tie into the half. The Squirrels also killed a 4-on-2 penalty kill during the period.

Team Mylec struck first in the second period to take a 2-1 lead, but 15 seconds later Eric Smith struck to tie the game again. Then a Don Marks slap shot found the net to give the Squirrels a lead. The Squirrels managed to kill off a 5-minute major as Mark Tessar scored short-handed, but the Squirrels gave up one on the kill. Iciek scored on the power play with about five minutes remaining for the insurance goal, then held on for the win.

The Squirrels advance to face the top-seeded Jesters, who beat District 5, 6-3 earlier in the evening.

The championship game is Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Mark Tessar scored three goals, including the winner late in the game, to give the Squirrels a 4-2 victory against Team Mylec, a team that rivals the Squirrels in overall offense this season.

The Squirrels set themselves up for a win Wednesday with a late power play with the score tied at 7, but instead surrendered a short-handed goal and fell to Team Mylec, 8-7. The Squirrels also gave up four power play goals, while scoring two themselves.

Jeff Ford scored three goals for the Squirrels and Stu Miller had two.

In his first season as a Squirrel, Mark Tessar led the team in the regular season with 18 goals and 12 assists. The Squirrels finished in 5th place

The puck was a good two inches over the goal line. The players from both teams saw it. But the ref was standing way over the corner as the play virtually stopped, and he was ignoring the Squirrels who were pointing at the puck in the net and screaming ‘It’s in!’ He didn’t bother to skate forward for a better view. Instead, after the goaltender pulled the puck back from the net and into his pads, the ref blew the whistle and called faceoff.

The puck was literally sitting still, over the line, and the Squirrels were right behind the net, looking at it in the net. If the ref didn’t see it in the net, then he should’ve blown the whistle as he lost site of it.

That would’ve made the score 1-1. Instead, the Squirrels went down 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, then 3-2 with 19 seconds remaining.