SUNDAY SUPER SHOCK: AA LAS VEGAS 3, AAA KINGS 3!!!!!
Kurt Long 2 Goals, Anthony Greener 1, Brandon Rial on Fire..
Las Vegas - As the clock ticked down and nervous Las Vegas fans hunched over the cold bleacher rail, Rebels defenseman Jeff Root blasted towards the left
point, stopped, sprayed ice against the glass, wound up and hammered a hard low shot to the net.
At the same time, Rebs winger Kurt Long went crashing down the right side straight to the red post.
Root's
blast-like shot bounced off the goalie, Long fired in the rebound with exactly 2:39 left to play and Rebels fans stood and shrieked in the big rink.
AA Las Vegas 3, AAA L.A. Jr. Kings 3
What a game...
What an incredible, all-out, all-heart effort...
Anthony Greener scored the first goal, Long the next two and Rebs goalie Brandon Rial played the game of his life at the Santa Fe Stations Ice Arena.
Rial handled hard, low liners; tricky bouncers and high heat
the last 10 minutes of the game.
For the weekend, the Rebels went an incredible 3-0-1 and for the season the team is now 8-0-2.
Here's how AA Las Vegas did this weekend:
3-2 over AA Fresno Falcons
2-0 over AAA Cal Stars 5-4 over AAA Cal Cougars 3-3 vs. AAA L.A. Jr Kings
That's undefeated anyway you spell it for the young Rebels who weren't exactly sure how they would do at the Las Vegas Fall Classic.
Except, Rebels GM Gene Krametbauer had an inkling earlier this week during an early-evening dinner with coach Rob Pallin in the Food Court at the Santa Fe.
There, Krametbauer boldly predicted a perfect 4-0-0 weekend.
He came close, believe me.
Notebook -- So how did the young Rebels accomplish so much, so fast?.....Pallin says "when you build a
team, you start from the net and work out - and we had incredible play from both of our goalies (Chris Gahan, Brandon Rial) all weekend...
On Sunday, the Rebels were physical with the Kings, particuarly in front of either net....Conrad Trimbath had one of his all-time games, making super-smart decisions and precision-type passes....Kurt Long, meanwhile,
has been working on keeping the blade of his stick on the ice while rushing towards the net -- and that accounts for the huge goal he scored to tie the game 3-3....
FINAL AAA L.A. Jr. Kings............2....1...0=3
AA Las Vegas Rebels.......1....1....1=3 LV-Anthony Greener (Kurt Long) LA-Jevy Sison (Blake Humphrey, Ramin Taheri) LA-Auggie Aiken (Mike Caprio, Jason Allen) LA-Ramin Taheri
LV-Kurt Long (Anthony Greener) LV-Kurt Long (Jeff Root)
Shots - LA 34-20
9.7.03 Heartbreaking News....A Tragedy..... LAS VEGAS ROLLER STAR JOHNNY OAKES DIES IN CAR WRECK
Las Vegas, Sept. 7 - Johnny Oakes, a long-time Las Vegas roller star and who scored many thrilling goals for Larry Sanford's elite travel roller teams, died Saturday in a car wreck on Charleston and Durango.
He was on his way to meet former linemate and best friend J.C. Caron.
"I don't know what to say...or how to comment," said Sanford who was on his way to meet the Oakes family very early Sunday morning.
Oakes, 21, skated with Micah Sanford, Freddy Young, Patrick Stevenson, Leroy Garcia initially with the Las Vegas Rolling Thunder which evolved into the AAA Las Vegas Tour Rebels. Oakes also was on the same
teams as Travis Gunderson, Caron, Chris Fitch and Billy Tufano with goalies Chris Franco and Mike Mocoso. All of those are regarded as the best-ever in Las Vegas roller.
Oakes was an extremely popular skater at Crystal Palace on Rancho Drive. There, he was a star skater on many house teams for years while shaking out his game for the travel teams.
At Cimmaron H.S., Oakes and Caron skated on a championship team coached by J.C.'s father Buddy Caron.
Oakes played at high speed with style and grace and usually went flying down the outside lanes to angle in and score.
His younger brother, Tommy, also skated for years in house roller and on travel teams. The father of both skaters, Mike, was a regular at the rink boards for years.
This is a devastating loss for roller and for the hockey community in greater Las Vegas.
