A must win? Squirrels eye division title, playoffs with two to go

The Squirrels are down to their final two draws of the 2010 Anthracite Curling Club Summer League.

Tonight, the Squirrels face JEMM in a non-conference game on Sheet 1 at 6 p.m. at the Ice Rink at Coal Street Park in Wilkes-Barre. At 3 wins, 3 losses and a tie, the Squirrels are just two points out of first place in the Buckwheat Division, and fourth overall in the Fell Conference.

ACC is expected to rule tonight on playoff eligibility, but many indications are that four teams per conference will make the post-season tournament. This puts the Squirrels in the No. 4 seed, but the hold on that position is strained, at best.

In order to get a little more secure about Playoffs aspirations, the Squirrels will need a win tonight and to do so will need to knock off the rust. It’s been three weeks since the team last took the ice. During that draw, the Squirrels fell to the league’s best team, C&Ds, 13-4.

After taking a 1-0 lead, the Squirrels couldn’t manage to get shots in the house with any regularity and in three ends, found themselves down 9-1. After winning three ends of their own, the Squirrels were actually poised to pull off an unthinkable comeback, but couldn’t establish any effective guards to block multiple point opportunities.

“We were down by a lot … too much,” Skip Joshua Sophy said. “As a team we had to take some risks and that had more than anything to do with the lopsided score. After we were down 9-1, I thought our play really improved, and our teamwork is getting back to where it was two months ago.”

New Lead Chris Martinelli will be in his third game with the Squirrels tonight and was not around the last time tonight’s opponents met in the preseason. Just before the regular season began, the Squirrels took down JEMM 9-2, the squad’s first-ever win.

Both teams have been plagued by inconsistency all year, but each has the possibility of making an expanded post-season. JEMM is currently fifth in the Smith Conference.

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