Official Game Summary

Glastonbury, CT August 28, 2007. ZRink - Killingworth Guppies Summer 2007 season.

08/28/2007- Tuesday night's game was one that will be secured in Guppies Lore for many years to come, as the Guppies finished off a miracle comeback on the Ball Smashers and won the Regular Season Championship. It was a game that reaffirmed the Guppies status as  "America's favorite non-professional franchise"!  However, things didn't start that well for our beloved heroes. The Ball Smashers would score the first goal of the game and then take a two goal lead late in the half. In a post game interview Guppies goaltender Andy Pettola explained what he saw "We were too timid in the first thirty minutes of the game. We allowed them to control the play....I'm not sure why? It might have been the crowd or the importance of the game". Pettola was correct, in the First Half the Guppies were out played by the Smashers and offered little to no offense. At the end of the Half the Guppies were down 2-0.

Just before the Second Half  Guppies Captain Brian Kelly (2-1-3) gave Pettola some advice "Don't let them score any more goals" while good in theory it didn't workout well for the fish. On the opening face off  J. Miller walked past Keith Millen (1-0-1), Rob Murphy (0-1-1), and then beat Pettola to give the Smashers the 3-0 lead.  Midway through the half the Guppies were forced to kill a penalty after Dan Pequita (1-0-1) was called for slashing.  The Gupps managed to kill off the penalty and then started on the offense, as Kelly scored his first of the night seconds after the fish killed off the man advantage.  "Everyone seemed to pickup their game after we killed the penalty and Kelly scored" explained Brian Mulcahy (0-1-1) in a post game interview. The Guppies had new life and things looked even better after Millen took  a pass from Jason Zito (0-2-2) and beat the Smashers net minder with 9 minutes remaining.  Pettola stopped several scoring opportunities late in the game to help the Guppies stay close. Finally with just over two minutes remaining a Zito pass found Kelly, who scored his second on the night to tie the game at Three!  The Miracle Comeback was completed only seconds later when Pequita buried a "One Timer"  thought the Five hole to give the Guppies the 4-3 lead with less than a minute remaining.  The Fish killed off the remaining time to hold on to the Victory. After the game Marc Crayton commented "We played ten minutes of great hockey!"

With the win the Guppies captured the top seed in the playoffs and face off against the Fire Ants next Tuesday at 8pm. The Fire Ants earned the 4th seed after the Spartans dropped out of the playoffs. The Fire Ants are traditionally a very strong team and should prove to be a challenge for the Guppies. Playoff Tickets go on Sale on Saturday Sept 1st at 10am. Playoff Seats for Season ticket holder sales start at 9am.

SIDE NOTES:

- Tim Poulin, Joe Linskey, and Mike Halle were healthy scratches Tuesday night.

- The Guppies signed Andy Pettola to a multiyear contract after Tuesday night's game. Pettola was also named to the PIHA's Hartford Fire Ants Roster for the 2007-2008 season. Congrats to Andy!

- Coach Crayton? Marc Crayton suggested the line changes that led to the Guppies final two goals to complete the comeback. Crayton mentioned "Iron Mike" Keenan as a coaching influence.

-Close but not yet! Millen scored one goal Tuesday night to leave him one goal shy of tying Tim Poulin's single season record. Poulin was in Israel Tuesday but was watching the game on GSN (Guppies Sport Network) in  his hotel room in Tel Aviv.

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