Official Game Summary

Glastonbury, CT April 1, 2008. ZRink - Killingworth Guppies Spring 2008 season.

4/1/08- Tuesday night the Guppies and Ball Smasher continued their heated rivalry as they squared off yet again at the Z. The Guppies won the last meeting between these two teams in Overtime, earning the Guppies the Summer 2007 League Championship. Tuesday night was a little payback for the Smashers. However the Guppies came out flying and took an early lead as Jason Zito (2-0-2) continued his hot streak scoring his 6th goal of the season. The Guppies kept coming as Keith Millen (1-3-4) would score to give the Guppies the 2-0 lead. To the surprise of many in Guppies Nation,  Killingworth netminder Joe Linskey was able to stop the first shot of the game. It's the first time he's done that all season. When asked how he stopped the first shot he faced in a post game interview Linskey was honest "I have no idea! Half the time I just close my eyes and pray".  The Fish continued their offensive charge when Dave Armenia (1-0-1) banged in a rebound in front of the Smashers net. The Smashers offered up little in offense as the Guppies controlled the play. They did manage to net one goal. to make it a 3-1 game. However, Brian Kelly (2-1-3) scored on a shot from the point with .05 remaining in the half and gave the Guppies the 4-1 lead.

In the Second Half, the Smashers came out flying, scoring early to make it a 4-2 game. That's before Jason Zito scored his second of the game to give the Fish the 3 goal cushion again. The BSers kept coming, powered by the offense of Mark Miller. They scored two quick goals to make it a 5-4 game midway thru the half. The Fish answered yet again as Millen won a offensive face off draw to Kelly, who fired a shot 5-hole into the Smashers net.  Unfortunately that would be the end of the Guppies Highlights as the Smashers took control of the game. "I'm not sure what happened tonight" stated Brian Mulcahy "We controlled the entire game, then coughed it up in the final five minutes".  The Ball Smashers would score the next two goals, the tying goal scored with 1:47 remaining. The two teams went to overtime. In OT both teams had their chances but the goaltending was solid.  That's until, Kelly had the puck on the Smasher blue line and forced a pass over to Millen. The pass never got there as the Smasher's Mark Miller picked it off and went to other way. Miller made the most of his opportunity and beat Linskey to give the Smashers the 7-6 OT victory! The loss was hard for players and fans to take. This reporter can't remember such a colossal collapse in recent Guppies history. However, I'm sure there's another one out there. However, Assistant Captain Marc Crayton put it best "We got another one to play next week and that's my focus right now".  Many in Guppie Nation couldn't agree more!

The Guppies play in their first "West Coast" game of the season as the face off against the Snow Uncles. Game time is 11pm! As always, West Coast games mean 1/2 price tickets .....actually who are we kidding....we might pay you if anyone shows up!

SIDE NOTES:

- Rob Murphy was a healthy scratch.

- Rained Out!  The Guppies post game activities were rained out Tuesday night as Thunder Storms rolled in as the Guppies game just finished. The Gupps just couldn't catch a break Tuesday night. I know what you're thinking.....Guppies shouldn't mind a little water? This is true, however, its the lighting that scared them away.

- Speaking of Lighting, A few members of the Guppies (Kelly, Murphy, Pequita, and Poulin) played Ice Hockey at the Tampa Bay Lighting's home rink, The St. Pete Times Forum, this past Thursday. They were playing with the Burns & Kelly Ins Tournament team. BKI went on to win the Tourney going 4-0!

-Limited Stats! This week's box score only contains the Guppies Stats, as we were unable to get a copy of the stat sheet from ZRink management.

BOX SCORES: