Lee Orr wanted to show himself that a rib injury would not hold him back. Kyle Grenier wanted to put himself in the middle of the battle for the scoring championship. Both of those feats were accomplished today in Burton.

Much haggling and phoning from Lee produced a very intriguing lineup: high-scoring, highflying BUSH scoring leaders Lee, Kyle and Mitch; the 2009 debut of Burton Hockey stalwart Laird facing fellow stalwart Justin; a goaltender leaving his comfort zone to play forward (Shem); a long-anticipated debut from touted rookie prospect Ben de Wit; and the end of the longest absence in Burton Hockey history as the man who led the first-ever session in scoring, Dylan Stevens, returned for the first time since July of 2000.

Sticks in the middle produced a team of Ben, Lee, Kyle, and Laird; it was quickly determined that wouldn’t fly and so Kyle was switched with Mitch. That did nothing. It may have taken twenty minutes for the first goal to be scored, but once that first goal came, the trio of Lee, Mitch and Ben ended the game quite decisively 5-1 in about ten minutes with Kyle resorting to sickeningly hard slapshots that would fly fifteen feet in the air off Laird’s chest, they were so powerful. Cue switch two, with the teams switching goaltenders. All this served to accomplish was to transfer the pain from Mr. Gordon to the younger Mr. Bilinski. Justin grabbed his first shutout of the year, Lee had nine points in two games, and the generally outlandishly offensive Kyle had one point to show for two games of effort.

Switch three saw Dylan and Lee swap sides, putting Kyle, Lee and Shem together. Kyle found his groove with Lee and Shem (Kyle and Lee cycling with Shem on point), using his quicik release to score goal after goal. With another lopsided result (5-1 for Lee, Shem, Kyle and Laird), goalie were switched again (switch four), and finally, a formula for brilliant hockey was found. It was here in the first game of the new series that Dylan was awarded the first penalty shot of 2009 after some minor controversy on a shot that was knocked out of Justin’s glove despite being trapped with the net possibly off a couple of inches. Dylan was not successful. This followed another controversial Dylan goal in the second game of the session where Kyle’s shot on Justin was ‘deflected’ by Dylan’s sweeping hand motion; the ‘Hand of God’ goal was also not allowed. Mitch and Ben used speed and stickhandling to lead their team to victory 5-4. The games got shorter and faster from here on in. The cycling and point play of Lee, Shem and Kyle, featuring plenty of tic-tac-toe passes for goals, became too much to deal with by the end of the session, and even with Laird pulling out amazing save after amazing save, his opponents became too much to bear, winning the final two games 5-4, 5-2 to take the series 2-1.

Overall, Kyle and Lee were dominant forces as expected, but Ben held his own in this first session, showing amazing hands and puck control. Mitch made another step forward today in his development in Burton; there is no one in BUSH who can consistently outskate him through the course of a session. Shem’s skating is still admittedly choppy, but his point play is excellent and he is a passing defenceman of the future; he could very well make the leap that Graeme Orr made in 2006 or that Andrew Watson made this season. Dylan played as well as you could hope for someone who’s been away from the game nine years, but his head and play reads are just a present as they were back in 2000 when he was Burton’s dominant goal scorer for much of the season. The two goalies today tended to go on great runs of multiple saves and outlandish saves before letting in two or three goals in a short time. Laird showed no rust whatsoever and is already in top form, while Justin started brilliantly but tired at the end.

Lee showed no ill effects in returning from his rib injury. He stayed at a four-point-a-game clip for the entire session, finishing at 10G-14A for 24 points, holding a late series charge from Kyle to take first star by two points. Kyle recovered nicely from the near-whitewash of the first two games to finish at 14G-8A on 49 shots. Mitch and Ben represented the youth movement well with Mitch edging Ben 16 points to 15 for third star. In goal, Laird (wearing Canucks road white) was solid at .808; Justin (wearing Canucks home blue) had flashes of brilliance, especially in the first half, but was overwhelmed by the Lee-Kyle tandem in the last series to finish at .741.
Here are the game results:
Mitch Laird Ben Lee def. Dylan Shem Kyle Justin 5-1
Mitch Justin Ben Lee def. Dylan Shem Kyle Laird 5-0
Lee Shem Kyle Laird def. Mitch Justin Ben Dylan 5-1
Lee Shem Kyle Justin def. Mitch Laird Ben Dylan 4-5 5-4 5-2

Season Stats: The scoring race is considerably tighter after this weekend. Yet another huge session from Kyle puts him at 116 points, nearly level on 117 points with Stefan and just three points behind Oliver for first. Lee’s successful return puts him in this race as well at 105. Should the BUSH session go ahead on Wednesday as planned, Kyle and Lee will be leading the two leagues by the end of it. Mitch jumps from ninth to fifth. Kyle jumps into the lead in goals ahead of Stefan, while Mitch and Lee reach 50 goals. Lee also hits 50 assists. Kyle and Lee pass Oliver and Ryan to move to second and third in shots; Kyle reaches 300. Justin falls out of the top five in goaltending, bringing Joern in. Justin moves to sixth in games goaltended, and becomes the fourth player this year to record a shutout. Kyle ties Oliver for second in three-star points (five behind Stefan) with Lee five points behind in fourth. Shem moves up to third in APG. Justin gives up the lead in saves-per-game to Nathan. Lee’s 14 assists are tops for a session this year.

On the all-time front: Kyle passes 250 points. Mitch becomes the 16th players to score 200 points; he is 16 points behind Simon for 15th. Dylan passes Tony for 24th all-time. Laird passes Chris for first in 80-save sessions with 22. Lee passes Lorne for third in assists; Kyle passes Simon for 13th. Mitch and Kyle pass 700 shots each. Laird is once again the all-time save leader in Burton at 3,429 ahead of Chris Jackins. Lee passes Stefan for eighth in game played and needs six for 400. Kyle needs seven for 100. Justin passes Bron for fifth in games goaltended. Justin ties Joern for third in shutouts. Lee is within twenty points of Lorne for first in three-star points. Kyle is ten three-star points away from entering the top ten; Mitch enters the top twenty. Kyle passes Lorne for fourth in PPG. Ben’s nine assists are the fifth-best ever for a rookie. Laird completes the list of those who have played in all ten seasons of Burton Hockey (Laird, Lorne, Oliver, Bernie. Stefan, Joern, Lee). Lee has five straight ten-goal sessions; Kyle has four. Kyle’s streak of 15-goal sessions does end at three. Lee records his fortieth 15-pointer (seven behind Lorne for first). Ben reaches 15 points in his first session. Lee has five straight 15-pointers; Kyle has four; Mitch has three. Lee is one 20-pointer behind Stefan for third all-time. Kyle has four consecutive 20-pointers, one less than Dallas’ record of five. Lee has back-to-back 20-pointers.

SDF/GDF: Lorne holds onto the lead in the SDF, but his lead has taken a big hit with Scott, Pat and K.J. all directly behind him. Steve Weatherhead jumps into the top ten for the first time; Rob falls to tenth from sixth. Nathan ties Justin for most rankings led on the GDF while Bron passes Terryn for second on the ranking and Laird redebuts fifth.

Check out those Records and Honours on the links page before you leave. Wednesday promises more BUSH action; let’s hope!

I must also plug Jason Leung’s hilariously awesome highlight package of last weekend’s session, available on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgntmeqxvhM .