AA Jr Golden Knights 16u 3-Stars

#1 Zackary Ortolano

#2 William Jacob

#3 John Purdy/Tristan Nelson defensive pair

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Saturday, December 27, 2019

By Lee Samuels

Las Vegas – Seconds to go and the high-octane forwards from the AA Charleston Coloniels 16u stepped onto an accelerator going deep into an attack area to fire rocket-like mighty shots at the great goalie Zackary Ortolano of the AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u.

Ortolano, a premier goalie not just here but in the entire Western region, stopped them all – low liners, high blasts, corner post stuff – and then the clock ticked down and just like that the game was over.

Tie score.

AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u 1 goal, AA Charleston Colonials 16u 1 goal.

That was the final score in a thrilling game as both teams skated hard all three period before a packed North Rink at the Las Vegas Ice Center. Vegas got mighty efforts from William Jacob who hammered in a hard shot in the lower left part of the net and also from their d-men including the duo of John Purdy and Tristan Nelson – an elite pair who somehow, someway kept the hard-working Charleston forwards in tough spots the entire game. And those out of town forwards were hard to contain.

So this is the situation: The Wally Lacroix-coached AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u finished 2-0-1 in round-robin action and now heads for the Confetti Cup Final 4.  On Sunday morning 8 am the AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights take on the AA Utah Golden Eagles 16u.  The AA Charleston Colonials 16u will then take on the North Stars 16u. These games will be at City National Arena over on Charleston Ave.

All other Confetti Cup teams in this age group have been eliminated.

The Vegas game vs the Charleston Colonials was fast-action, cleanly played, as each team flashed their tremendous skills.  For Lacroix, it was probably a flashback to The Nationals last season when his AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights 16u took on the best in the nation in thrilling blue-streak games like this one while winning the USA Hockey AA 16u National Championship.

The important thing is that the AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights are the #1 seed in the Confetti Cup Final 4. 

And those never-give-up hard-skating AA Charleston Colonials 16u are still inside city limits as the #2 seed.

From the Blue Line – Vegas got an awesome effort as well from defenseman Caden Berninger who worked extra hard shutting down Charleston goal scorers….

Las Vegas Scoring – William Jacob from Micah Williamson

Las Vegas Goalie – Zackary Ortolano

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Sunday – City National Arena, Charleston Ave., Las Vegas 

AA 16u

Final 4

8:55 am – AA Vegas Jr Golden Knights vs AA Utah Golden Eagles

10:15 am – AA Charleston Coloniels vs AA North Stars

AA 16u Gold Medal Game

2 pm – City National Arena