Note: This session occurred simultaneously with the 10/6/06 VRH session and is stored on 11/6/06 solely for computer purposes.

Your humble statistician returned to McCormack Park Saturday afternoon to chronicle another session from the folks at Burton United Socialist Hockey, the second half of a Burton Hockey cross-BC doubleheader. The session start was delayed by the refusal of Chris Jackins to actually leave bed and then by his need to run errands, and then by Watson being held up by some visiting McMechans. At 2:40, the session finally began with nine players, a healthy mix of veterans and 2006 rookies and sophomores. The first session pitted Lee, Graeme, Seamus and Nathan (OOOR) against Watson, Cruden, Chris, Ol and Ryan. With Cruden finally rounding into form with more Burton experience, this was a tight series, with OOOR losing the first game before ekeing out a victory in the second game, necessitating a tiebreaker. The biggest story from the first two game was Nathan, deprived of the shot volume he feeds off of, registering a miserable .453. The afterburners clicked on after this and Nathan was over .900 for the rest of the session, OOOR grabbing the final game 5-3 and the series 2-1. Sticks were deposited into the middle two produce two competing teams for a second series, resulting in Nathan, Cruden, Oliver and Seamus against Graeme, Lee, Chris, Ryan and Watson. Graeme would miss the second game of the series after being knocked down to four wheels. Not that he wanted to miss the game, but Seamus and co. won the second game 5-0 to even the series. The final game went down to the wire, but an inopportune line change left Burton�s leading scorer on the bench as Seamus potted the winner to take the series. Rarely has Lee been so choked.

Seamus ruled throughout the day; while his shot count in recent session has been coming back down to earth, his scoring has not as he had 13G, 9A. Lee was with him until the shutout, finishing with 9G, 8A. Cruden was third star for the second week in a row with 7G, 8A and Oliver went double-digits again in assists but didn�t crack the 15-point mark. A shout-out to Ryan for notching 9 goals. Seamus, Lee, Cruden and Ryan all landed in the 35-to-41 shot range. Chris managed to take the day in an overall sub-par day in the Burton nets, .766-.759 over Nathan. Nathan�s day in net was definitely schizophrenic.

Useless Stats: The 5-0 shutout by the �European� offense of Seamus, Ollie and Cruden was not quite enough to keep Seamus from overtaking Lee for the 2006 scoring lead, but he ties Stefan, just one point behind Lee at 133-132-132 with Oliver crossing the 100 point mark to land at 104 and Lorne closing in at 94 in what is quickly shaping up to be the closest scoring race ever. Even if the BUSH crew pulls away a little bit from here on in, the VRH gang does have the advantage of a longer outdoor playing season, so nothing is settled, far from it. Bernie passes Jason for sixth in points. Lee leads Stef and Seamus in goals 78-74-73. Oliver�s assist lead over Seamus increases to six, 65-59, with Klopp at 58 and Lee at 55. Seamus needs eight shots for 400. Stefan needs 16 for 300. In what will irk the BUSH crew, Nathan and Chris were just off enough to hand the season goaltending lead to Carlos, .809-.807-.804. Chris� save lead over Nathan goes to 660-604; 660 is the fifth-highest single season mark ever posted and we are only halfway through the year. Joern moves into third in saves. VRH leads BUSH in games played this year, 46-4, with Stefan and Joern having played in 46 VRH games and Chris, Lee, Seamus and Oliver having played in all 44 BUSH games. Lee�s lead in three-star points narrows to ten over Seamus, 75-65. Chris moves ahead of Nathan in saves-per-game and is the only goalie this year above 15 saves per game. On the SDF, Jason leads for a tenth consecutive ranking but should see this streak fall next week as his inactivity continues combined with the strong play from Lee, Lorne and Seamus of late. Stefan falls to fifth as one of his better sessions falls of the rankings. Dorian shoots up to eighth. On the GDF, Nathan leads for a sixth straight session as Bron and Carlos lose sessions and fall further away.
On the all-time front, Oliver moves to within 13 points of the hallowed 1,000 point mark, 15 points ahead of Lorne. Lee needs just one point for 700, with Seamus moving to within 33 of Lee for third. Stefan becomes the seventh player to reach 500 points. Oliver needs twelve goals for 400 with Lee just five goals behind him for second all-time and Seamus 27 goals behind Lee. Oliver needs one assist for 600. Seamus is six assist behind Lee for fourth all-time. Oliver needs 16 shots for 2,000. Seamus passes 1,500 shots and needs four games to reach 300. Chris needs three games goaltended for 200 and is nine behind Laird for first all-time. Nathan reaches 150 games in net. Nathan and Joern record their seventh shutouts to move into second all-time. Carter�s 19 points tie for fifth-highest in a rookie session. Seamus passes Oliver for third in all-time three-star points and needs five for 300. Carter records his first ten-goal session and 15-pointer his first time out and Seamus ties Justin for third in ten-goal sessions with 17. Lorne has six consecutive ten-goal sessions, the second-longest streak of all time. Lorne and Seamus each have six consecutive 15-pointers. Bernie has played fifteen consecutive sessions (seventh-longest streak ever) while Seamus is right behind at thirteen. Joern is at eleven, Stefan and Lee eight, and Chris, Nathan and Oliver seven. Chris ties Laird for most 80-save sessions with 19; 16 of those are consecutive. Keep tracks of those Records and Honours, and VRH has a golden opportunity next week to make up ground on BUSH on the stat sheet.