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1/21/00
Red-Hot Ice Action in Southern California.....
WESTMINISTER WAVE, BAY HARBOR RED WINGS ON FIRE
Not
too many months ago, our Eddie wore a AA Las Vegas Mustangs jersey. He was a left winger, played 11 games (5goals, 5 assists) and one of the early-season stops was in Harbor City, Calif.
Down by the ocean, in an old historic rink, with an open-air wood roof. This is where the Mustangs took on the red and white Bay Harbor Red Wings on an October Sunday afternoon.
We started out OK, then the Red Wing's giant-sized checkers began slamming forwards around and all of a sudden a close game got out of hand.
Bay Harbor won, 9-4. The good thing was, all pulses were still beating and all of our starters were alive and well when we headed to the asphalt parking lot. It was a shattering experience.
As it turns
out, Bay Harbor was unbeaten at the time, then tumbled into a blue funk and a scoring drought (losing to the A Riverside Jets was the low point) but have recently put it all back together.
The latest Southern California standings, for AA Bantam ice teams, looks like this:
Westminster Wave...................9-3-1
Bay Harbor Red Wings...........9-4-1
L.A. Jr. Ice Dogs.....................7-3-3
Southcoast Sabres...................7-4-1
Ventura Mariners.....................5-7-1
Anaheim Jr. Ducks..................1-9-3
San Diego Gulls......................1-9-2
Also,
we surfed the web at midnight and came up with some recent scores and other team statistics of interest.
NorCal,
based in the Oakland, Calif., area, is a 31-10-1 AA bantam team which wants to go AAA in 2000-2001. They are one of the best teams in Northern California and are willing to travel to hostile arenas -- including Vail's #1 enemy, the Littleton Hawks.
Here are some recent AA bantam scores:
Littleton, Col. Hawks 4, NorCal 0
SouthCoast Sabres 6, NorCal 4
NorCal 7, Las Vegas Mustangs 2
Las Vegas Mustangs 5, San Diego Gulls 1
Dallas 4, NorCal 1
Westminster Wave 8, Bay Harbor 3
L.A. Jr. Ice Dogs 5, Bay Harbor 1
Bay Harbor 6, San Diego 2
Some overall team records to date:
Bay Harbor 14-9-4
L.A. Jr. Ice Dogs 13-7-3
San Diego Gulls 11-27-5
++++++++++++
The
miracle of the web never ceases. We have located our Mike Naylor's complete statistical breakdown while a forward for Denver University and later for the Dayton Bombers in the ECHL.
He even has a trading card, which we are trying to track down!
That exclusive
story (and photo of his Dayton Bomber hockey card) is all set for next week -- only in the Blue Line Report on Eddie's Vail web page: WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/BLAZINICE26
1/10/00
After All These Years, Leroy Garcia Rolls On
The NARCH Winternationals were in town over the weekend and late Sunday afternoon the
high-flying, speed-burning Beach Boys of Southern California took the floor at Crystal Palace on Flamingo and Buffalo.
And off in a corner, wearing a Beach Boys white jersey with red sleeves and taking warmup
shots was none other than Leroy Garcia of Las Vegas.
He's 18 now, a freshman at UNLV, a long-time roller teammate of Micah Sanford and one of
the cornerstones on a 16-and-under Rolling Thunder team of Las Vegas which won a national championship in Des Moines, Iowa on August 7, 1997.
There were plenty of Las Vegas stands in the bleachers and all were abuzz when Leroy took the floor.
His teammates are gone now. Micah is lighting up goals for the AAA Vail midget ice team in
snowy Colorado. Smooth-skating Patrick Stevenson is not on anyone's travel roster. Freddie Young,
the former national speed skating champion who blazed down so many floors and scored so many
important goals, plays the game for fun now.
Las Vegas didn't have a junior roller team in Winternationals -- Leroy Garcia, skating for our
one-time #1 enemy -- was all we got.
So we all enjoyed, drank black coffee and shared popcorn in the bleachers as the Beach Boys
took on the Buffalo Jr. Wings in a Division I 21-and-under gold medal game. And Garcia whizzed
bout at top speed making blue-streak passes. Everytime, he cracked the puck it went right on the blade of a speeding forward.
The game was a thriller, 4-4 in regulation. In OT, Buffalo made a rush on its first shift and
scored the game winner.
About an hour later, Leroy left the locker room.
"Tough game, wasn't it," he said, sighing. "How's Micah and Eddie doing in Vail?"
Great, I said.
Both are playing their hearts out.
Just like you, I said.
I asked him about ice hockey. He played briefly with the Junior B Las Vegas Icebreakers.
"It really wasn't a good fit, I moved on," he said.
Then he brightened up.
There's a beauty about hockey. There is always another game.
"Come watch me at 8:30 tonight," he said. "It's a Junior Division game. I'll be playing for
the Beach Boys again."
++++++++++
Two summers ago, our Eddie and Leroy were on the same house roller team at Crystal Palace
on Rancho -- a dream season with the two perfect passers.
1/5/00
MICAH SANFORD SCORES 5 GOALS, 5 ASSISTS IN CALGARY
He Gets Named to All-Star Team!!!
On his home wood roller rink, Crystal Palace on Rancho in Las Vegas, Micah Sanford set all
the scoring records, directed power plays, captained travel teams, made breath-taking, impossible ame-winning goals over and over again.
His fiery play was strong enough to lead a 1997 16-and-under Rolling Thunder team into De
Moines, Iowa and win a USAC roller gold medal -- a championship team which included Leroy Garcia, Freddie Young and Patrick Stevenson.
Then Sanford turned his focus onto ice hockey, initially with a Las Vegas Junior B team
which played on Sahara ice. After one season, Sanford joined the Vail, Colorado AAA Midget team
and quickly emerged as a force every time he carried the puck and made a power move down either side.
This past week, in the 32-team AAA 'Big Mac' Tournament in Calgary, Sanford -- in four
games -- knocked in five goals, added five assists. His Vail team fought hard, but was 1-2-1 overall in
the opening series of games against superstars teams such as the Notre Dame Hounds, Saskatoon Comets, Le Duc Oil, Calgary Royals.
Only eight teams advanced, but Sanford (and two other Vail teammates) were named to the All-Star team.
"I spoke to (Vail midget coach) Brad and he said Micah played about as good as anyone,"
said Larry Sanford, proud Dad.
This will be Micah's final ice season in Vail, then it will be off to Junior A hockey.
+++++++
And guess who is in Junior A hockey right now....Gabe Gauthier, former roller hockey star
from Southern California, has 10goals for Chilliwack in Canada.....Just a year ago, Gauthier played bantam ice hockey for the Los Angeles Jr. Kings....
The Vail AAA bantam team, in Burnaby, Vancouver last week, watched Gauthier speed-burn down the ice many times...
Eddie Lewis, our Ed's long-time roller sidekick, has settled into his new home in Alamagordo,
New Mexico.....There is a local roller rink, but young skaters there are very inexperienced...
Jason Allen, skating ice with the AA Las Vegas Mustangs, this week worked out with the
Tour Rebels 13-14 roller travel team......
Eddie's team went 1-4 in Canada last week, but a new star was born: Goalie Charlie
Lockwood played exceptional hockey and was particuarly strong in the stunning 3-2 win over two-time defending champion Abbotsford.
Feeling chilled here in Las Vegas?.....It was minus-11 the other night in Vail, headquarters of
our AAA bantam ice team.
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