It has been in the works for the past year but the long awaited formation of the second Burton hockey conference has occurred. BUSH now has a new competitor with the advent of Vancouver Roller Hockey. Longtime regulars Stefan, Bernie and Joern joined together with another Burton veteran (namely Jerod) to start it off. Oliver came down for a one-off from BUSH. A small session, but very important in the history of Burton hockey. Here is Stefan with his expert write-up.

I am very pleased and honored to announce the statistics from the first ever Vancouver roller hockey session. We had a small group together but enough for us to play 2 on 2 half court with 1 goalie. The members in attendance for this momentous occasion were Bernie, Jerod, Joern, Oliver and Stefan (notables missing were Lorne [softball] and Tony [on the lake]). We started player a little after 1pm on August 14 in the scorching heat at the rink in Burnaby Confederation Park. It was a massive sized rink, probably longer than the Fauquier rink, which suited us fine as we were going to play half court anyway. After a cleaning up some broken glass on the rink we got right into our first game.

The first game pitted Jerod and Stefan vs the Koth-Kappus brothers. Stefan and Jerod had a bit of a slow start and a tough time adjusting to the half court, and fell quickly to a 2-0 deficit on goals by Bernie and Oliver. After the second goal Jerod and Stefan regrouped and started to connect on their passes, while found their groove while on defense. The two nothing lead slowly faded on a couple goals by Jerod. As the game continued on everyone began to tire and the game turned into a battle of the defenses. Regardless of the slowdown Jerod and Stefan continued to move the puck well and were able to capitalize on 2 more goals by Jerod to make the game 4-2. By this point the heat was getting to everyone and the game slowed down even more, and breaks were taken more frequently. Finally the game was ended on a goal by Stefan to give the team of Jerod/Stefan the 5-2 win over team Koth-Kappus. Everyone found themselves a little tired after playing in the 30+ degree heat, yet we still wanted another game. Bernie decided to have a triumphant return to net to allow Joern to play a game out. So after throwing sticks the next game would see Joern and Stefan up against Jerod and Oliver.

The next game started off quickly with Oliver netting a quick goal, while Joern was trying to adjust not only to playing out but also to playing half court. Soon after the first goal Oliver netted his second goal of the game to put the Jared/Oliver team up 2-0. Stefan and Joern continued to try and find some chemistry and a way to defend against team Jared/Oliver. After Jerod scored the third goal of the game Joern and Stefan had to re-evaluate their strategy. The decided to switch players on defense (Stefan moving to defend Oliver while Joern took on Jerod). This switch appeared to pay off as they continuously stripped the ball from either player. After some very strong defensive play they finally began to click offensively, and were rewarded on a goal by Stefan off a great play by Joern. Joern and Stefan continued to play strong defensively, which turned into more rushes on offense. The game began to open up momentarily and there were some very strong rushes by both teams, however Bernie was their to shut the door with some excellent play in the net. This fast play continued for another stretch. After an awkward shot on goal by Joern, Stefan found himself on the doorstep only to have Bernie shut the door twice. However the puck was still floating on the goal crease and despite Bernie pushing Stefan out of the net Stefan was still able to hit the puck enough to go over the line.

At this point it looked as if team Joern/Stefan would start to overtake team Jerod/Oliver. They were playing tight defense and were getting ample chances offensively. However their strong play could not last as the grueling heat finally took it's toll and Joern and Stefan found they could barely skate. After using all of their energy Joern and Stefan gave up and watched as Jared and Oliver netted an easy goal on a rush passed the flat footed players. At this point Joern and Stefan could no longer go on and threw in the towel ending the game as a 4-2 victory for Team Jerod/Oliver.

After resting for a good 15 minutes they decided to close the day with a shootout. Jerod won the shootout in the sixth round against Oliver to be reigned the shootout king.

All in all it was an excellent opening session to Vancouver hockey. While it only featured 5 players the future is bright with Lorne and Tony being shoe ins, Laird returning to Vancouver, and the likely introduction of two new goaltenders Ian and Bro (Bronoslav!). With such a strong player and longer season it is more than likely Vancouver hockey will give the BUSH league a run for their money. Stay tuned for future games.

Signing out,
Stefan

Useless Stats: With Oliver the only 2005 regular to play this session, he makes the only big moves in the scoring standings, passing Justin for third; he needs six points to hit the century mark for the third straight year (he�d be the first!). On the all-time front, Oliver is just eight points away from 900 while Jerod moves from 29th to 25th all-time. Joern is two games behind Nathan in games goaltended. He Also moves into the season lead in saves-per-game. Session streak records are not applicable as only two games were played, except for consecutive sessions (which will not apply to BUSH players this session as consecutive session streaks would otherwise be impossible to maintain; these streaks now apply to one�s conference unless one manages to make the effort to cross conferences for special appearances). Oliver�s consecutive session streak goes to 19, tied for fifth longest all-time. Dallas continues to lead the SDF for a tenth straight session, the third-highest total and second-longest streak ever. With Stefan now reaching the full quota of sessions, he shoots all the way up to third. The GDF remains static with Nathan on top, his tenth total session (now second all-time). The next BUSH session will be included with this ranking if it occurs within the next 30 days or before VRH plays their next session, whichever comes first.

Burton Cup: With only five players, there is negligible movement in the main classification as Republic Of Ireland retains their overall lead. Stefan moves into second in the newly renamed Fauquier/Vancouver classification. You can check out all the mind-numbing statistics by clicking the Records and Honours link on the top of the home page. The Burton hockey war is on!

Useless Stats: With Oliver the only 2005 regular to play this session, he makes the only big moves in the scoring standings, passing Justin for third; he needs six points to hit the century mark for the third straight year (he�d be the first!). On the all-time front, Oliver is just eight points away from 900 while Jerod moves from 29th to 25th all-time. Joern is two games behind Nathan in games goaltended. He Also moves into the season lead in saves-per-game. Session streak records are not applicable as only two games were played, except for consecutive sessions (which will not apply to BUSH players this session as consecutive session streaks would otherwise be impossible to maintain; these streaks now apply to one�s conference unless one manages to make the effort to cross conferences for special appearances). Oliver�s consecutive session streak goes to 19, tied for fifth longest all-time. Dallas continues to lead the SDF for a tenth straight session, the third-highest total and second-longest streak ever. With Stefan now reaching the full quota of sessions, he shoots all the way up to third. The GDF remains static with Nathan on top, his tenth total session (now second all-time). The next BUSH session will be included with this ranking if it occurs within the next 30 days or before VRH plays their next session, whichever comes first.

Burton Cup: With only five players, there is negligible movement in the main classification as Republic Of Ireland retains their overall lead. Stefan moves into second in the newly renamed Fauquier/Vancouver classification. You can check out all the mind-numbing statistics by clicking the Records and Honours link on the top of the home page. The Burton hockey war is on!