2/23/06 Los Angeles, CA  Coach Randy Carbone's lineup moves paid off in a big way, as the Quakes ended the losing streak with a huge 8-2 win over the Bruins. The team was firing on all cylinders with the turbo charged offense firing 44 shots at the Bruin net. Goaler Gornick only faced 25 shots but made some excellent saves to keep the game one sided. The maligned experienced defense played a steady game with the help of backchecking from the speedy forwards and the Quakes played a strong physical game with the return of enforcer Erik Bateman.

The outstanding game upstaged a press conference where a tearful owner Roger Lucich officially announced that he will be selling the team in the off-season. He stated that he will immediately turn all of the administrative duties over to Bill Burden whom he has given the title of President and CEO of the franchise.

But on Tuesday all the excitement was on the ice from the moment the puck dropped, all three forward lines attacked the Bruin zone. With both Nick Wood and Jeremy Menkee moved up front it inspired Flying Frenchman Tom Bourgeois, the team's fastest skater to lead a dazzling display of speed of exciting 2 way hockey. The Quakes jumped off to a big lead and had the Bruins on their heels for the first two periods. In the third period, the Bruins broke the shutout on a great shot to beat Gornick. They followed it up 20 seconds later with a fluke goal that bounced off two Quakes into an open net. Jeremy Menkee took it upon himself to call a timeout to settle things down. The move paid off and shortly thereafter, the Bogorad/Temkin tandem iced the game with a great individual effort by Adam when he carried the puck into the zone and drove hard to the net forcing two Bruin defensemen to take him down, Temkin swooped in and buried the loose puck into the back of the net. David said "I'm happy to pick up some garbage goals from Bogie's work. Usually I'm the one mucking it up in the slot while Adam taps in the rebounds." The Quakes scored three power play goals including two on a major penalty to Bruin team tough guy, Adam DeMarco, who butt ended big Erik Bateman.

Carbone gave a lot of credit to Menkee for his willingness to skate hard every night and perform whatever role is asked of him. Randy remarked, "Jeremy is a real positive leader on the ice and on the bench where he encourages everyone after each shift." Bill Burden endured a barrage of criticism from the hockey writers last season when he traded high scoring John Schefers to get Menkee and journeyman defenseman Gary Wells. In the long run, it has proven to be a great trade for the Quakes.
The Quakes won't have much time to celebrate the win, because they have another tough game on Sunday against the first place Tacoma Titans. They will have to play without young Jeff Allen, who will be serving a one game suspension from a fight with a Titan earlier in the season. Gosewich commented, "It was fun to see Jeff deck that jerk from the Titans, but we need him to score big goals rather than sit in the penalty box or the press box."
Esquire Jeff Sax was back on the ice after the preliminary investigation of Carbone's gambling allegations. Everyone was pleased to hear that there is no evidence against Randy that would hold up in court. He said that someone is trying to frame the coach but nothing will be released until after the playoffs. He hinted that Burden is exploring Chinese Mafia involvement in the Quake coffee mug money laundering allegations. Sax also hinted that there could be a link to the Janet Jones Gretzky case. Randy said that he wasn't surprised that someone would try to frame him, he has offended thousands of people over the last 40 years. He made his usual apology, "I may have been a little insensitive." On Thursday, Sax released his first official statement about the case: "My law firm is working closely with Federal authorities to uncover the true culprit and exonerate our captain, an outstanding citizen and a role model for our team, the league, and humanity in general."

New CEO, Bill Burden, made a brief statement from his hotel suite in southern China. He stated that he will be reorganizing the front office and eliminated the extravagance allowed by the previous administration. He announced that he has put CFO Larry Glascott on administrative leave until further notice. Burden appointed Indy Banker, Dave Temkin to manage the Quake assets until a new CFO is named. Bill stated, "Until a sale is finalized with a new owner, we need to protect the teams financial value." Burden also appointed John Gornick as Assistant General Manager, while Bill retains the overall G.M. responsibilities. Bill was quoted "Believe it or not, that Crazy Goaler has a good head on his shoulders."
Glascott has been suspected of having a conflict of interest by secretly agreeing to take over the operations of the San Francisco Rainbow Quakes of the Gay Area Hockey League (GAHL) next season. Glascott is expected to tell all when he is scheduled to appear as a guest on Dickie Dunn's TV show, "Oustside the Sin Bin." The show airs on OLN at the conclusion of the Missouri Hog Rodeo finals next month.

The only sad note from this week's report is the destruction of Leo Stefanov's freedom chair. Leo bought the red, white, and blue folding chair shortly after his defection from the former Soviet Union Red Army team and he has used it at every tailgate party since. It was broken beyond repair in an altercation involving young Jeff Allen, when he was emotionally hugging each Quake after the tailgate party. An unnamed attendee chided that he must have watched the new gay cowboy movie. The homophobic Allen, wrestled him to the ground destroying the chair. It is going to take a few weeks to get used to see Leo sitting in a normal dark fabric chair.