Official Game Summary

Glastonbury, CT September 4, 2008. ZRink - Killingworth Guppies Summer 2008 season.

09/04/2008- Thursday Night the two top teams in the ZRink C-League faced off for the 2008 Summer Championship. It was a Best of Three Series to decide who would skate off with the Tee shirts and bragging rights. Game One was a defensive struggle as both goaltenders played great. It was probably Joe Linskey's best effort of the season. Especially early on as Jimmy Stickhandle (JS) came out flying. The Guppies had their chances to score as well, most notably a Jon Stevenson breakaway, but Jonnie thought he was shooting at a soccer net and missed high to the short side. The Game was rough but it was only the beginning as the refs let the teams play. At the end of Regulation the two teams were still looking for their first goal of the game. OverTime produced the same defensive oriented style of play with neither team wanting to make a mistake and give the other a chance for victory. Late in the OT, a JS shot trickled through Linskey's pads and just barely rolled over the goal line. Game One goes to Jimmy Stickhandle.

In Game Two JS took the momentum they gained from the OT win in Game One and scored less than Thirty seconds into the game. "That was a real test for us" stated Gupps forward Marc Crayton "We could have given up right here, but that's not our style". The Guppies finally solved the JS defense when Brian Kelly (3-2-5) scored his first goal of the night. The 1-1 tie was short lived as  JS scored only a few moments later. Things got worse for the Fish when Mike Halle was called for a Roughing penalty (That's #5 for the 30Pack this Season, however, we'll see that in 2009). The Guppies again rose to the occasion as Kelly scored Shorthanded to tie the game at two. After the offensive explosion the two teams went back into their defensive shells. Both Goaltenders closed down the nets for business. Goal scoring was hard to come by all night but the chippy play was on the rise and again the refs let the teams play. Keith Millen (2-0-2) finally snapped some twine when he scored with 7:25 remaining. The Guppies defense got tighter with the lead and JS never came close to tying the game. The Gupps went on to win game Two 3-2.....onto Game Three.

Before Game Three the Refs called both team Captains to center ice and spoke. Play had grown very chippy, just ask Linskey who was ran numerous times by a certain JS player. The JS Captain lost his mind screaming at the Refs that the Guppies were playing too rough .... a laughable claim. Unfortunately, The tirade would lead to a 6:30 minute Power Play late in a tied game. Sad considering one Ref stayed he "didn't want to decide the game" ...Oh he decided it.... and put a Stamp on it! The Guppies would take the lead when Dan Pequita (0-2-2) made a great pass to Kelly who was planted on the door step of JS's net. Again the lead was short lived as Jimmy Stickhandle tied the game at one. Only Seconds later a JS player his Linskey in the face with his stick. Jon Stevenson took exception to this repeated attack and went after the player. The JS "tough guy" turtled up. Mike Halle came in to tie up a JS player who was the 3rd man in. After the fight a confused Stevenson look at the refs and stated "That's a roughing at best!".  Long Story short....Stevenson was given six and half minutes in penalties and a game misconduct. Halle was given a misconduct for 4th player in. JS was given .....NOTHING!! What was that comment about not deciding the game? JS went on to score the next 4 POWER PLAY Goals. The Fish would add another two even strength goals but lost game three,  6-3.

SIDE NOTES:

- Brian Mulcahy was a healthy scratches.

- Rob Murphy showed up right after the Stevenson and Halle was tossed....Thank god because the Guppies were very shorthanded at this point. Despite his late arrival Murphy managed a goal and an assist.

- In K-town Riots raged all night as the Killingworth Faithful were upset with the Guppies loss. Meanwhile at the Z, Both refs were escorted from the Zrink by Glastonbury PD. It was a crazy night.

- Stay tuned in the coming days for the Guppies Summer 2008 Page, featuring the Player Awards. Also, look for the return of "Classic Guppies" on the home page during the off season...... See you in 2009!!!

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