08/01/2008 Lakewood, CA The The Los Angeles Quakes pulled off a surprising upset as they swept the playoffs to win their 2nd consecutive PCHL championship. It was a major upset because the defending champions ended the season in a horrible losing streak barely hanging on with a tie for the last playoff spot. The defense corp was devastated with the loss of their top stars. Fan favorite Nick Wood defected to the cross town Zambonis. Contemptuous Goaler John Gornick was visibly upset at the Zams for raiding the Quakes of their young star and taking all of the young female groupies who you used to hangout at the post game tailgate parties. Hall of famer Goose Gosewich went out with a season ending groin injury at the midseason Arizona Classic and developing young star Jeff Allen, broke his wrist trying to lift the big man up from the ice. Bruiser Erik Bateman also went down with a broken wrist when he enthusiastically waved at his daughter, Pumpkin, in the stands.

General Manager Bill Burden pulled a major coup for the playoffs by working a deal with the Quakes Atlantic Coast Hockey League affiliate River Rats to borrow their captain and defensive standout Pat Dent and power forward Dar Izadi.

Round One
On the eve of the playoffs, captain Randy Carbone challenged the squad to play total team defense with forwards back checking and defensemen staying in position. Gornick added, "It's about time someone mentions the D Word after two months of outnumbered attacks and 10 friggin goals against per game." The strategy paid off in game one of the playoffs as the Quakes edged the Klondike Kings with a tight 3-2 win. The boys were greatly relieved to have finally broken the losing string and move on to the second round. After the game, Tim Burke notified the team that he would be unavailable for the remainder of the playoffs because of undisclosed family issues back east.

Round Two
The reward for beating the Kings was a date with the high flying first place Portland Ice Monkeys led by talented Hector Garcia and mobile defenseman, Wade McQuarrie. The Quakes continued to stymie the powerful Ice Monkey offense with their new defensive commitment until they were able to break the game open with counterattacks by Temkin and Bogorad for a 7-2 win.

Championship Round
There was an electric atmosphere in the air as the Quakes faced off against their long time rival Tacoma Titans for the Cuban Cup. The Quakes were buoyed by the return of star defenseman Mike Kelly for the championship game. It payed off big time in the third period as Kelly scored the game winner on a spectacular individual effort. GM Burden was all smiles as he felt vindicated of the harsh criticism he received for the big salary he paid to sign Kelly for part of one season. Speedy Tom Bourgeois scored an insurance goal late in the game to ice the 4-2 victory. The victory celebration was sweeter than ever as the Cuban Cup was passed around for the second straight season.

This season marked the debut of Gabriel Carillo on the team. Gabe was the first product of Quake innercity outreach program administered by Ray Razo at the Puentes de Cristo mission in East Los Angeles. Gabe had tears in his eyes as he admitted without Mr. Razo, he would probably be in a gang or jail instead of hoisting the cup.

Cuban Cup Travels
Randy Carbone, Ray Razo, and Gabe Carillo took the Cup to Mexico in the offseason for a highly publicized tour. Razo took it for a round of golf at an exclusive Cabo San Lucas Country Club followed by Gabe's tour of orphanages in Mexico City. Unfortunately the goodwill did not last long, because of Carbone's embarrassing antics with the Cuban Cup at a huge wet t-shirt contest in Cancun. Carbone was quoted in the police report, "I was just trying to determine the cup size."

Later in the summer, Jeff Sax led a tour (which included Adam Bogorad and David Temkin) to Israel and throughout the Holy Land. Sax has a dream to put a team from Israel on the ice for the 2010 Winter Olympics and he thought showing off his Cuban Cup would further his cause.

GM Burden said he would have liked to have taken the cup to China, but somebody has to stay around to prepare for the next season. So far the only deal the GM has made was to sign rugged free agent defenseman Mike Cuzick. Cuzick is best know for his lifetime suspension from the Atlantic Coast League when he was a member of the Newark Neanderthals. .