Another year, and another session of Burton Hockey. The first session of 2007 is now officially in the books. We had a great turnout of people, with some coming and going throughout the day. We had a pretty monster session with a total of 9 games being played.

We started the day with a half court session as we waited for Carlos and Lorne and Laird to show up. Teams were Stefan/Bernie vs. Andrew and rookie Albert Ulunday (another teammate of Stefan's from the VIHL). Team Andrew/Albert dominated the first game winning 5-2, with Albert showing off his scoring proficiency.

Game 2 of the day saw the additions of Tony, Pedro and Carlos to round out our teams to an even 3 on 3 with goalies. Albert continued his scoring ways in the second game with Pedro also displaying a touch for the net (specific top shelf glove side).

Game 3 Lorne and Laird arrived and Albert took off. So we decided to start a best of 7 series. Stefan, Andrew Lorne and Laird took on Tony, Bernie, Joern, Pedro and Carlos. The first two games were dominated by Team Carlos, while Laird slow got back into game shape. After the second game in the series Andrew had to leave, so we traded Bernie to Team Lorne, Stefan and Laird. Bernie appeared to hold the winning ways as Team Laird went on to win the next 4 games straight. Lorne had Carlos's number for most of the series so Stefan and Bernie tended to sit back in defensive rolls feeding Lorne in the offensive zone.

The final game of the day featured the most balanced teams of the day with Lorne, Joern, Tony and Laird vs. Stefan, Bernie, Pedro and Carlos. It took probably a good 15 minutes for the first goal to be scored, and after the game got tied at 1 it probably took another good 15 minutes for the next goal to get scored. Team Laird started to fade however as the tiredness of the first session started to set in. This caused for Team Carlos to slowly start to dominate the game and eventually win a dominant 5-2 victory.

All in all a fantastic 9-game session to start the year. Can you imagine, already a session done in January! With the continual addition of more players, VRH is fixing for a fantastic year of hockey in 2007.

Thanks, Stef! An excellent, competitive start to the 2007 Burton season. VRH gets a huge jumps on the BUSH crew with its first-ever January session. Stefan played all nine games and lead the session in scoring with one of his biggest sessions ever, 13-16-29-52. Had Lorne not had to miss two games going to the airport, he probably would have led the day; he took second star with 16G, 10A. It was their session, to be sure. Pedro continues to impress, taking third star in his second career session with 11G, 3A. Albert looks poised to be a strong rookie-of-the-year candidate already with 5G in just two games. Laird returned to VRH and did quite well, posting .781 to lead the day. Carlos played the most games and notched 88 saves but was quite a bit off his career average at just .733. Joern withstood the onslaught of halfcourt to notch .765.

Season Stats:This early in the season, naturally, the scoring chart will mirror the session scoring chart. Stefan once again leads, as he did for the early part of 2006 before BUSH began its season play. Lorne is right behind, though, just three points away, and if he can manage to escape goaltending duty, should challenge Stefan for VRH supremacy all season long. It’s a long way back to Pedro, Bernie and Joern. Lorne is already pulling away in goals; Stefan is already pulling away in assists. As per usual, Stefan leads in shots, and Lorne has an unholy shooting percentage of 41.2%. Last year’s goaltending champion, Laird, leads the way again to start the year. Carlos leads the way in saves, having goaltended the most games. Lorne and Stefan are well ahead in the offensive per-game categories, with the exception of Albert’s 2.50 GPG and 10.00 SPG. Joern is well ahead in saves-per-game. On the SDF, Lee remains on to for a fifteenth straight ranking, but Lorne makes a huge jumps up to second, and Stefan is right behind them as all three players are over a rating of 100. Pedro almost reaches his full complement of games and shoots all the way to seventh as a result. Seamus leads the GDF for a second straight session. Nathan’s inactivity drops him to sixth, just ahead of the returning Carlos.

On the all-time front: Stefan becomes the seventh player to pass 600 career points. Tony needs two points for 100 all-time and passes 50 goals for his career. Lorne needs five assists for 400 and is eight behind Lee for third all-time. Joern needs six assists for 300; Stefan needs 19. Bernie passes 1,500 shots. Carlos and Laird both fall below .800 all-time, leaving just six goaltenders above that plateau. Joern passes Justin for fourth in all-time saves. Bernie becomes the second player to play 600 games. Lorne passes 400 games played. Laird takes back the all-time games goaltended lead from Chris. Lorne is twenty three-star points behind Lee for the all-time lead. Stefan needs ten three-star points for 300. Carlos has made at least 80 saves in all three sessions he has goaltended. Stefan is fifth all-time in ten-goal sessions. Lorne records his seventh-straight ten-goal session; Stefan his fifth. Lorne records his 40th 15-pointer; his eight consecutive (second longest streak of all-time); Stefan has five straight. Joern’s streak ends at four. Lorne records his 20th 20-pinter; Stefan has four in a row. Bernie and Lorne play their eighth and sixth consecutive sessions, respectively. Laird, Lorne, Joern, Stefan and Bernie have now played all eight seasons of Burton Hockey. Justin, Oliver and Lee will join this group once the BUSH season begins. VRH players have a huge opportunity to put some major stats on the board, as BUSH typically does not start playing until April. Colby Olsen has been musing about a third league of Burton Hockey in Sun Peaks, of all places. This would presumably include former Burton stars like Dylan Stevens and Chris Nowak. Stay tuned!