Saturday, January 19, 2019

By Bethany Drysdale

Las Vegas – In front of another packed crowd, the UNLV Rebels put on a scoring clinic, winning 7-1 against the Utah Utes. The standing room only crowd fans brought energy Saturday night as goaltender Erik Eidissen kept a shutout going well into in the third period. The Utes came out strong in the first period matching the speed and the intensity of the Rebels lines. It was a physical match right from puck drop as there is no love lost between these two teams. Tommy Harrison paced the Rebels defense with some nice, quick shots from the blue line. Pax Malone hit a puck off the crossbar and Tristan Mayer put a bull’s eye shot off the letters of the Utes goalie. It was the Rebels John Moeller who broke through the scoring with 4:47 left in the first. Taking the shot top shelf, he was assisted by Malone. The intense play of teams resulted in a scuffle with 3:39 to go in the first, giving the Utes a 5 on 4. Even a man down the Rebels took advantage of sloppy Utah passes and scored a short-handed goal by Joe Kaszupski assisted by Cody Williams to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission. At the end of 1, the Rebels had 11 shots to Utah’s 6.

Cody Williams was on fire at the start of the second period. The Rebels captain was fast and aggressive, taking several shots and barely missing. Jared Turcott was his best on home ice as well, out-skating the Utes and working the offensive zone well. With 4:29 left in the second Rebels defenseman Eric Williams went top glove side scoring the third goal of the game assisted by Kane Toriumi. The Rebels now were clearly the most dominate physical team throughout this game. They continued to frustrate the Utes, keeping them off the scoreboard and limiting their shots. At the end of 2, the shots on goal favored the Rebels 21 to Utah’s 10.

The third period picked up with the Rebels on the power play. D’Andre John put one on the back of the net on a power play, assisted by Kaszupski, going top shelf blocker side. The frustration continued for the Utes as they right back onto the penalty kill with 15:14 left. Kameron Fink added a 5th goal at 15:04, assisted by Kaszupski. UNLV was not slowing down their game and kept the hits coming putting two Rebels in the penalty box and giving the Utes an 5 on 3 advantage for two minutes. It was only then the Utes were shorthanded that Utah managed to score on Eidissen, ending his shutout with 12:53 to go in the game. Jared Turcotte was not satisfied with the score so he added to the tally with a wraparound with 8:57 to go. He was assisted by Malone and Moeller. Five minutes later the Rebels added a field goal point point to make the score 7-1, with a fast goal by Kameron Fink, assisted by Sean Plonski. The seven goals were would be more than enough to keep the Rebels unbeaten home streak going.

Join the Rebels on Friday January 25 at 7:30 pm when they take on Colorado State for a weekend doulbeheader at City National Arena. If you have not seen the Rebels play you are missing out!

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Bethany Drysdale was voted by our readers as the Best Hockey Writer here on Vegashockey.net

Here are the Top 5 UNLV Rebels goals scorers this season

Goals

14 – Paxton Malone

13 – Cody Williams – 100 career goals for UNLV

8 –  Joseph Kaszupski

8 – Jared Turcotte

6 – Bryce Woodward

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Bemidji, Minnesota – Brendan Harris of Las Vegas scored his 2nd goal of the season for NCAA Bemidji State in a 3-0 win over Michigan Tech. Bemidji State raised its season record to 12-11-3.

Cody, Wyoming – Danny Ramos of Las Vegas scored in his second straight game to help the NA3HL Gillette Wild beat the Yellowstone Quake 6-1 at Riley Arena. The Gillette Wild now has a season record of 16-13-2.

Also this weekend….

//Anthony Rodriguez of Las Vegas scored for the powerful WSHL Long Beach Bombers in an 8-2 win over the Southern Oregon Spartans. Long Beach is now 15-2-0 on home ice this season.

//Defenseman Steven Avalone of Las Vegas had an assist for the Kindersley Klippers in a 3-1 loss to the Battlefords North Stars at the West Central Events Center in Kindersley, Saskawatchwan on Friday night. Steven, 18, has four assists this season.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Special to Vegas Hockey

Las Vegas – Cody Williams set up a short-handed goal – swiping a pass, driving down the left side of ice and passing perfectly to teammate Joseph Kaszupski who scored – to help the UNLV Rebels move to an early three-goal lead enroute to a 7-1 win over Utah University on Saturday night.  Rebels goalie Erik Eidissen excellent in his side to side movement and was very strong in the net. UNLV is now 9-0-0 on home ice and 16-4-1 this season. All UNLV Rebels home games this season have been sold out at City National Arena.

UNLV goal scorers

First Period

UNLV – John Moeller 5th goal of the season

UNLV – Joseph Kaszupski 8th – from Cody Williams

Second Period

UNLV – Eric Williams 5th – long-range blast for a goal – Kane Toriumi gets assist

Third Period

UNLV – D’Andre John 2nd

UNLV – Kameron Fink 2nd

Utah – 5 on 3 power play goal

UNLV – Jared Turcotte scores – his 2nd goal of the weekend/8th goal this season

UNLV – Kameron Fink – 2nd goal in this game

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UNLV goalie – Erik Eidissen  is now 3-1-0, 2.11 gaa, 92.1% save percentage

Friday, January 18, 2019

Cody, Wyoming – Rookie defenseman Danny Ramos of Las Vegas blasted in his first-ever goal in junior hockey for the NA3HL Gillette Wild in a 9-2 win over the hometown Yellowstone Quake here at Riley Arena. Danny has 1 goal, 8 assists this season.

Las Vegas Weekend Goal Scorers – Jan 18-21, 2019

Goals

9 – Jacob Underhill, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

8 – Ian Wiliams, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

7 – Heath Mensch, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

4 – Anthony Mazzo, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

4 – JJ Williamson, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

3 – Trent Carter, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

2 – Michael Corrigan, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

2 – Kameron Fink, UNLV

2 – Ash Printzen, AAA Detroit Honeybaked girls 19u

2 – Danny Ramos, NA3HL Gillette Wild

2 – Jared Turcotte, UNLV

1 – Brendan Harris, NCAA Bemidji State

1 – William Jacob, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

1 – D’Andre John, UNLV

1 – Joseph Kaszupski, UNLV

1 – Zach Lawson, UNLV

1 – John Moeller, UNLV

1 – Joey Raats, ECHL Utah Grizzlies

1 – Anthony Rodriguez, WSHL Long Beach Bombers

1 – Gabriel Testa, South Muskoka Shield – Canada

1 – Tristan Toth, AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u

1 – Cody Williams, UNLV

1 – Eric Williams – UNLV

To contribute here send to leesamuels07@aol.com

Friday, January 19, 2019

By Bethany Drysdale

Las Vegas – The #8 UNLV Rebels were back on home ice for a nine game homestand, beginning with the #24 Utah Utes. Starting in goal for UNLV was Ben Giesbrecht, making his 10th start of the season. The crowd was packed in, as usual, for the Rebels. Looking to start off the scoring, Angelos Tsalafos had an early chance for an open net which sailed wide. Kameron Fink has a strong shot that was blocked topside. But penalties by the Rebels put them down four times in the first period. Zach Lawson broke through, scoring a short-handed goal on a Utes turnover in the neutral zone. Assisting on the goal were Jordan Rea and Connor Hetzel with 8:11 left in the first period. Utah saw how it was done, and answered back with their own short-handed goal on a 2 on 1 breakaway. At the end of 1 the shots were UNLV 6, Utah 8.

The second period started with some back and forth battles for puck possession. Cody Williams scored a big goal in the middle of the second period with Joe Kaszupski getting the assist. The physical game of UNLV resulted in a 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity for the Utes. UNLV’s penalty kill unit was phenomenal! Bodies blocking shot after shot the Rebels kept the Utes from scoring. UNLV goalie Ben Giesbrecht was on his game, seeing the puck from every angle. The last four minutes of the period were a defensive win for UNLV keeping the Utes from tying the game. At the end of 2, the shots on goal were UNLV 17, Utah 21.

The fast, furious third period went over for five minutes without a whistle. With 12:40 left UNLV was still leading 2-1. Two quick penalties on both teams resulted in a 4 on 4 for 1:43, with UNLV getting a man advantage for 6 seconds. Five on five resumed with 8:50 left in the game, with no scoring on the power play. Cody Williams made a great play on goal but the whistles  blew as the referees lost sight on the puck. After the pushing and shoving,  UNLV managed a power play with 6:37 left in the game. Utah called timeout with 6:17 to go while the Rebels have a 5 on 3 for 1:26. The penalties on both side added up throughout the game. Four on four, once again with a little over 4 minutes left in the game. Utah gets a 5 on 3 advantage for 51 seconds on a tripping call. Jared Turcotte of UNLV puts the puck in goal with an empty netter. Turning the puck over at the faceoff dot, the Utah defense did not see Turcotte squeeze in to intercept their pass for the final goal of the game. Final score – UNLV wins 3-1.

Come to City National Arena tomorrow – Saturday – for Game Two against the Utes at 7:30 pm. We will be in the stands, supporting the Skatin’ Rebels. Hope to see the stands packed, making plenty of noise!

Friday, January 18, 2019

Game sold out at City National Arena, Las Vegas

ACHA D1

Final Score

UTAH UNIVERSITY 1

#8 RANKED UNLV REBELS 3

UNLV goals

Zach Lawson – 6th goal of season

Cody Williams – 13th goal – leads all Rebels goal scorers

Jared Turcotte – 8th goal of the season

UNLV goalie – Ben Giesbrecht

For the Love of Hockey: What to do with a broken hockey stick?

By Bethany Drysdale

Somewhere, at some point in a hockey player’s career, when your lining up that perfect shot, your favorite stick breaks in two. Not only is it frustrating to miss the shot, but you are now out about $200 to replace it. So what do you do with the two pieces that used to be your favorite twig? As they say on Paw Patrol, “don’t lose it, reuse it.” That is exactly what my friend Greg Goslin does with broken sticks; he reuses the carbon shafts to make projects and the results are amazing. Greg got the idea to repurpose the sticks from his dad. “My dad used to make picture frames out of broken sticks for all the teams that I played on in youth hockey growing up, so once I had my first son, Easton, I decided to make him some things that no one else would have like a hockey rink crib and some other sports inspired furniture,” Greg says.

Playing on an adult league, there are no shortages of broken sticks for Greg to use. “I collect from rink and teammates know I always keep them. I found a couple people selling online and I have actually sold some online myself since with my sons named Easton and Bauer I end up trying to use those sticks more and not as many CCM, Warrior, True, etc.” As a parent to 2 young boys, Greg has created a whole bedroom set for them out of repurposed sticks. “I think the crib is the favorite thing I have done as I had a lot of excitement to be a father and build something special and unique for him.  The baseball dugout bed got a lot of views on Facebook as one of my wife’s friends posted it and then we had 10 or more friends I hadn’t seen in years send us messages that they saw Easton’s dugout bed on Facebook.  It was over 7 million views and thousands and thousands of comments.  Hopefully it inspired some other folks to get creative and get involved in making special things for their kids…not just buying it at a store and every other kid could have too.  I have tried to get creative with making the boys letters or the reversed shadow letters of their names, which was fun and the penalty box that I made for “timeout” turned into a place that Easton liked to go and play so it didn’t have the intended use initially, but he now understands that the penalty box is not a fun place and he has to sit and be quiet.”

Although he lives in Florida, Greg plays in tournaments here in Las Vegas. “For several years a group of guys from Atlanta have been coming and playing in a tournament each spring. I always found it interesting how many rinks are in the Vegas area. I now live Orlando and there is only 1 rink within 1-1.5 hours of my house. The support behind Golden Knights is awesome to see too…especially since I lived in Atlanta for 15 years and it was such a fair weather hockey fan town where the community never got behind the team.  The Vegas hockey trip is something we all look forward to every year and even as some folks, like me, moved away from Atlanta we still meet up for the Vegas trip. It’s always a great time.” Hockey is a family sport for the Goslin’s; bringing up the next generation of hockey players to appreciate the hard work and effort to succeed.        

            If you are interested in ideas to repurpose broken sticks, email Greg at ggoslin@aec-consult.com and carriegoslin1222 on Ebay. One man’s broken stick is another man’s sports cave project. I asked Greg what was his best hockey memory, and just like any proud dad, he said, “I hope my best hockey memories are yet to come and ones I will get to see my sons experience and witness their joy.” I echo this sentiment. Passing down your favorite stick to your child, even if it’s broken, is like passing the torch to the next generation of future all-stars.

By Bethany Drysdale

Las Vegas local Eric Williams is on pace for a career high season for UNLV this year. The 6 foot, 205 pound defenseman has played in 19 games this year for the Rebels, scoring 4 goals, with 8 assists. After wrapping up a four game road trip to Arizona, Williams sat down with me to talk about his hockey career. Learning to skate at age 6, he loved to be out on the ice and chose hockey over baseball early on in his development. Eric is a sophomore, undeclared major at UNLV, with aspirations of being a commercial airline pilot. The skill and dedication it takes to become a pilot is well within Eric’s reach, just as he shows his dedication to hockey.

The team is connecting at the right time and making the best of the opportunities coming into 2019. Eric is a key player, helping the Rebels to jump to #8 this week after their successful road trip. Scoring a goal and contributing 2 assists, I asked Eric what kept them going playing four games in five days. He said, “Everyone, stepped up to contribute. When someone got down, another guy would make a play and kept the team focused. There isn’t just 1 big playmaker on the team; it is a collective effort when we win games.” Watching the games, it was easy to see how well the guys get along.

Being a local, I asked Eric what he thought about the growing hockey community in Las Vegas. He said, “It’s great to see the kids out there learning to skate. Hockey in Las Vegas has always been a tight knit group, and the Golden Knights brought more attention to our sport. The UNLV games pack City National and it’s humbling to see the support we get at home games.”

When asked what team or line has been his favorite during his career, Eric was quick to say he feels bonded to this year’s UNLV team.

“We have a goal in mind each time we get out on the ice. We want to grow the program to the next level. Everyone understands that each game builds a positive foundation for the future.” Playing against ranked ACHA Division 1 teams is what brings out the best in Eric and the Rebel team. To be the best, you have to play the best. Minot State, University of Arizona, and Arizona State will almost certainly be part of the championship tournament.

When asked what player or coach influenced his game the most, Eric said, “Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Sakic.” Joe’s rapid snap-shot release is legendary and one big reason why he twice scored 50 goals in a season. For young kids, emulating their favorite players is often behind the drive and motivation to keep getting better. I asked Eric if he realized the example he was setting for the kids of Las Vegas who watch him play now. He said, “I love that kids in Vegas can have hometown players that they can look up to. Guys like Zucker and Quinney are great to watch.” I reminded him that for my two boys, he is one of those hometown heroes.

Come see the Rebels this weekend at City National, 7:30 against the Utah Utes.