11/1/05 Lakewood, CA The LA Quakes beat the Burnaby Bruins in the semi-finals by a score of 5-2 at the Glacial Gardens on Tuesday. The final game for the championship will be on Sunday on the road against the Tacoma Titans. PCHL Commissioner, Danny Garcia, will be on hand to award his Cuban Cup to the winners.

The Quakes were focused and ready to play in Tuesday's semifinal game. G.M. Bill Burden and Coach Randy Carbone inspired the team by voluntarily sacrificing their ice time to coach the full squad from the bench. They put together three powerful lines and three sets of solid defense pairings. Along with some spectacular goaltending for Gornick, the Quakes looked like a well-oiled machine outshooting the Bruins 41-29. Ray Razo opened the scoring with a 98 mph slap shot and goals by Tommy Bourgeiois and Leo Stefanov put the Quakes up 3-0 in the first period and would be all the goals they would need on this night. The Bruins closed the gap to 3-1 in the second period and gained some momentum pinning the Quakes in the zone for a few shifts. Adam Bogorad finally was able to carry the puck down ice and heard Coach Carbone screaming: "Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!" Instead of shooting, Bogorad made a beautiful pass to Nick Wood, who scored to extend the lead to 4-1. The Bruins came back with a short handed goal in the third period with a good shot that beat Gornick's glove hand. Both Bruin's goals were in the same location, as the Bruins obviously had read the scouting report. Jeff Allen closed out the scoring with a good effort from the "Energy Line" of Allen, Bourgeois, and Menkee.

Carbone was very pleased with the win, but said: "We are going to have to step it up a little more against the Titans on Sunday. We had a lapse in the second period and gave up a short handed goal on a four minute power play." The Titans earned the home ice advantage buy beating out the Quakes by one point in the regular season. The last game between the two teams was an epic 3-2 win overtime win by the Quakes.

High-Roller, Erik Bateman, has worked out a deal with Jet Blue Airlines to borrow a jet to fly the Quakes from Long Beach Airport to Seatac for the game. "Flyboy Bateman" has been given special clearance from the FAA to co-pilot the jet. A few of the Quakes wanted to take Rick Carbone's luxury bus, but Burden convinced them to fly with the team. Immediately following the game on Sunday, the team will fly directly back to Long Beach and join the final tailgate party in the adjacent Glacial Garden parking lot. Conditioning Coach Gosewich and Nutritionist Jamie Menkee said the Quakes will throw a celebration no mater what the outcome of the game. The fans have made it clear they expect to party with the Cuban Cup, although no one volunteered to drink from it.

Congratulations to Randy Carbone, who was named Coach of the Year by the Hockey News for his leadership in pulling the Quakes out of horrendous slump for a great stretch run. Randy gave all the credit to the players, but said there will be no celebrating until after the game Sunday night..