September 20, 2005- Another Tuesday night and another short handed Guppies squad took to the dek. With Five players out of the line up the Guppies were even more shorthanded than last week, when they just got past a strong UConn team. Things weren't any easier this week as the Gupps faced off against ESPN. In the crowd all the great ESPN sportscasters like John Buccigross, Barry Melrose, Darren Pang, Steve Levy, and of course the big guy Chris Berman. Apparently, with the NHL moving to OLN and Sportscenter's refusal to admit that Hockey is a sport (I mean The World Series of Poker is some exciting stuff) the boys were at the Zrink for their hockey fix. The Guppies would strike early as Brian Mulcahy (1-1-2) buried a pass from Marc Crayton (0-2-2) giving the Gupps the one goal lead less than a minute into the game. Despite having the lead the Gupps were out played early on, however, As he has been lately, Linskey was strong in the Guppies net. The Guppies would make it 2-0 when Jason Zito (2-0-2) fired a great shot past ESPN's netminder Ricky Luzio. Up 2-0 midway through the first half the Guppies had a bit of bad luck when they were unable to clear a bouncing puck from the slot and ESPN's Ken Langille fired the puck past Linskey. Things got worse for the Guppies when Langille would tie the game at two with just over two minutes remaining in the half. However, The Guppies had an answer when Zito deflected a point shot from Brian Kelly (3-2-5) into ESPNs net only seconds later. At the Half Guppies up 3-2.

The Second Half didn't start as well as the Guppies had hoped. Off the opening Face-off, ESPN's Cory Coffin, won the draw skated past the Guppies defense and beat Linskey with a slow shot to the short side. This took about .10 seconds! Not to be out done Crayton would set up Kelly only .08 seconds later to regain the one goal lead. As the game wore on the younger ESPN team started to take control as they rattled off the next three goals to take the 6-4 lead. With just over five minutes remaining Mulcahy would cross the blue line a make a drop pass to Kelly, who fired the puck into the ESPN net cutting to lead to one. The Guppies tried to get the tying goal but were stopped at every turn. ESPN opened up the game when Coffin and Scott Bouchard score just over a minute apart giving them a commanding three goal lead. Kelly would score with .33 seconds remaining but it was too little too late. Despite the loss the fans seemed to be pleased with the Guppies effort. The players seemed to be upbeat as well "We were just a player or two away from beating that team" stated Guppies forward Jason Zito "Hopefully, more guys will start showing up soon"

The Guppies next game is Sunday 10/9 at 6pm vs District 5. Guppy fans will recognize the District 5 team , because they are the same team that beat the Guppies in OT during the Puck C finals. However, in Puck C the team goes by the name District 6. Tickets are available, this should be a great game