After a year of trash-talking, nay-saying, false starts and generally ass-fuckery, it was time for the long awaited battle between Burton United Socialist Hockey (John McCormack Memorial Park, Burton BC) and Vancouver Roller Hockey (Ambleside Park, West Vancouver, BC). BUSH came confident, hailing from the hometown of Burton Hockey and thus having the traditional base of power. VRH was also confident; having already played four sessions this year in the warmer climes of the Lower Mainland, they were sure to skate circles around the rust-ridden Burtonians. So, what happened, you ask? Well, they say that history is written by the winner, so Lee Orr of BUSH provides the seven-game summary:

Hey Kyle, here's the goods.
On Friday, the long awaited epic clash between VRH and Burton United came to fruition on BUSH's storied and hallowed home turf. The battle was titanic, with a best of seven series, winner take all. The prize? What's on the line? Everything. Bragging rights. Fame. Title of undisputed roller hockey league champions. The contenders - Stefan, Joern, K.J., Nathan, and Big City Bernie. The defenders - Ollie, Lee, Chris, and Hillbilly Seamus.
First games VRH goes out to a 2-0 lead on brilliant goaltending from KJ. Burton United is a little too pumped up to be cohesive, but they get it together and come back with 5 unanswered. That would be the story of the series. Quick starts for VRH but unable to compete with the BUSH league psycho stuff. Seamus has a dominating offensive performance with 10 goals and 7 assists in 4 games.
Game 1. 5-2 BUSH
Game 2. 5-1 BUSH
Game 3. 5-2 BUSH
Game 4. 5-3 BUSH
Some believe the key to BUSH's overwhelming victory was the sacred pre-game practice ritual, held at Glenbank where the BUSH league players paid homage to the old Gods of hockey, asking for the strength to smite their heathen Starbucks-sippin' big city competition.

Series 2 - Lee, Joern, Stefan, Chris vs. Seamus, Ollie, KJ, Bernie, Nathan
Game 1. 5-2 Nathan
Game 2. 5-4 Chris
Game 3. 5-4 Chris
This series was a hard fought thriller. 2 overtime games with it all on the line, Chris's team pulled through with some great goaltending and 2 overtime winning goals from Lee to clinch the series. Joern and Stefan clicked, showing they too could light up the scoreboard. A great day of hockey. A classic in the annals of Burton Hockey.

Joern: Thanks for the game and for the organizing.....the classic late arrival by the Nakusp crew made this a TRUE old school session. Thanks for spanking us...I'll definitely take a rain cheque for another matchup though. What else is fucked is that we have been doing this for 6 years with each year seeing pretty good participation. I like it! Good to see you guys...till next time.
Stefan: Was a shame we were without a VIHL goaltender, this could have turned the tide a bit in the match. Granted my hat is off, you three outplayed us pretty good, despite our quick starts to almost every game. The last series however was pretty evenly matched.
Lee: Hahaha. Still throwing rocks from the grave, huh, Klopp? May I remind you KJ posted a .894% in your first game with 37 saves. It was a classic. And an old fashion whoopin'. Great fun, I hope we can do it again in the not too distant future.

And there it is! BUSH defeats VRH four-and-away to reign supreme. Both teams were missing some regulars, though (Jason, Lorne, Bron, Andrew and Carlos for VRH; Justin, Laird, Graeme and Dallas among others for BUSH), but both teams were certainly stacked. This will certainly have to be repeated very soon. A good-ol' free-for-all best-of-three ended the session and gave some reparation to Joern and Stefan. Seamus was far and away the offensive star of the day with 16G, 9A for 25 points. Lee also reclaimed his 2003 form with 10G-9A. Even with a game in net, K.J. nabbed third star for VRH (despite not being a Vancouver regular) with 8G-6A. Joern also gets a piece with 5G-9A Perhaps VRH was humbled this day, but they will be back. K.J. made 38 saves(not 37 as mentioned above) in just one game to lead the day with .884. Chris was solid with .806 and Nathan, after almost a year away, started his 2006 campaign with .784.

Useless Stats: Stefan extends his season points lead over the absent Jason to 85-72. Joern passes Bernie and Andrew for fourth in points. Stefan needs three goals to hit 50 for just the second time in his career. Joern passes Bernie for fifth in goals. Stefan also passes Jason for the assists lead this year, 38-37, while Joern and Bernie are at 33. Stefan goes over 200 shots for the year while Bernie passes Andrew for fourth. Seamus debuts second in shooting percentage and Lee fifth. Chris debuts second in save percentage and third in saves; Nathan debuts fourth in both. Joern and Stefan remain the only two player to have played in every game this season. Seamus leads in PPG, GPG and SPG. Stefan is fourth and Lee fifth in GPG. Bernie falls to fifth in APG. Lee debuts ahead of Stefan in SPG in third. Nathan debuts first in saves-per-game; Chris debuts fourth. Seamus' 25 points ties Stefan for the highest session total of 2006. Seamus' 16 goals this session easily lead the way this year, as do his 60 shots on goal. Lee's 51 shots tie him for second this year. K.J's stellar .884 is easily the best save percentage recorded this year; Chris' .806 places third. Nathan's 91 saves place him second for the year in that category; Chris' 87 rank fourth. On the all-time front, Oliver needs five points for 900. Lee needs nine points to tie Justin for fourth in points and fifteen to reach 600 points. K.J. passes Robert to enter the top 10 in all-time scoring. Seamus needs two goals for 300. Lee ties Justin for fourth in assists. Stefan passes Justin for fourth in shots and reaches 1300 shots all-time. K.J. vaults into second all-time in save percentage behind his brother Seamus, pushing Nathan to third. Chris passes 2000 saves, a mark Nathan needs 160 saves to reach. Joern passes Justin for fifth in games played. Nathan needs one more game in net to tie Joern for third in games goaltended. K.J. moves to third in saves-per-game. Oliver and Lee adds their names to the list (Lorne, Joern, Stefan, Bernie) of those who have played in all seven Burton seasons (Laird is the only other person eligible at this point). Lee ties Justin for second in 10-goal sessions with 17. Lee also passes Oliver for most 15-point sessions with 23. Seamus has the second-most 20-pointers with 12. Chris extends his record streak of 80-save sessions to 11, while Nathan has three straight 90-save sessions and 12 total, now first all-time ahead of Laird. Bernie has played in 13 consecutive sessions, Joern nine, Seamus seven (the last BUSH session was way back in July), and Stefan six. Lorne's streak ends at nine, and Justin's officially ends at six. On the SDF, Jason celebrates four consecutive sessions on top. Stefan slips behind Lorne to third, while Seamus shoots up to fourth and should begin challenging for the top position with another session or two. Lee jumps from twelfth to seventh. On the GDF, Laird stays in first for the third straight session and Chris debuts sixth. Don't forget those Records and Honours, and let's hope that both BUSH and VRH can get out as often as possible and heat this season up.