After a week-long heat wave, it was actually nice to see some clouds roll in for today’s session. Despite being a bit muggy, the clouds quelled the heat enough to let us have a really good session with a solid turnout of 9 players.

We started our first series with the former Boozehounds (Pat, Jordan, Rob) with Joern in net vs. the rest (Stefan, Oliver, Ryan, Bernie) with Lorne in net. Also to note: Lorne's team played this first game with 4 players on rather than 3 to balance out the Pat effect. The 4 men on the ice however turned out to overbalance things and, well, really make things a little congested. Team Lorne ended up winning the game 5-2. The second game was a lot more balanced with the 3 on 3 and led to a golden game match after Team Boozehounds came back from a 4-1 deficit. Finally, the Boozehounds completed the upset and took game 5-4. In the final game, Team Lorne had their wheels fall off, and the Boozehounds rolled on to an easy 5-1 win.

Our next attempt at teams had Oliver, Rob, Stefan and Joern pitted against everyone else. These teams appeared to be a pretty balanced once again, and yet again we went to an overtime situation. With scoring coming from everyone but Pat, Team Lorne completely dominated in the victory over Team Joern. In the next game, Pat decided to make up for his past game lack of scoring and netted 4 goals in 5-3 victory over Team Joern.

We mixed up the teams again, deciding to do sticks in the middle. This resulted in us getting the teams we started the session with (besides a change in goalies). The first game of this series was absolutely ridiculous. Pretty close to every shot on net was going in. Both goalies ended up with horrendous save percentages in this one, which ended 5-1 for Team Lorne. The next game was a lot closer and a good battle. This game went to overtime once again, and once again Pat's team ended up victorious.

Pat took off after this game, yet we still wanted to play, so we setup one final game. Bernie, Oliver, Stefan, and Lorne vs. Jordan, Rob, Ryan, and Joern. This game was a quick finish with team Lorne sailing to an easy 5-2 victory.

So, a really solid session with 8 games. There should be some excellent photos to follow from Crystal with Stefan's camera. Also of note were Bernie and Jordan both having really solid sessions. Both put up some really solid numbers today. As well, amid talk on Glasnost about goaltender scoring, Lorne tried to score on several occasions today, playing with a player stick instead of a goaltender stick.

Thanks, Stef (and thanks to Crystal for the pictures)! Despite not playing the final game, Pat already had the session in hand, finishing with a huge 16 goals and adding six assists on 60 shots. Stefan was consistent throughout the day and took second star with 12G-8A-20P on 56 shots. Rob was hot in the first half of the series and wound up third at nine-and-six. In net, both goalie withstood a barrage of shots, each saving 109 shots, but Lorne let in eight fewer shots to better Joern .802-.757. Both goalies put up huge numbers in game four (39 and 37 saves, respectively) that were subsequently cancelled out by the amazingly short game six (just one save each, a new Burton low).

Here are the game scores:
Boozehounds (Rob Pat Joern Jordan) def. The Rest (Stefan Oliver Ryan Bernie Lorne) 2-5 5-4 5-1
Jordan Bernie Pat Ryan Lorne def. Rob Oliver Stefan Joern 5-4 5-3
Jordan Pat Rob Lorne def. Ryan Oliver Stefan Bernie Joern 5-1 5-4
Stefan Bernie Oliver Lorne def. Rob Jordan Ryan Joern 5-2

Season Stats: For one day (unless something catastrophic happens at tomorrow’s BUSH session), the scoring lead heads back to VRH, but just barely. Oliver lies at 148 points, but Stefan takes a big chunk out of him and is just three points behind. The BUSH tandem of Kyle and Lee lies five points out of the lead at 143. At the very least, you’ll see this trading back-and-forth for a few weeks; most likely, BUSH will accumulate enough games to pull their scorers ahead. Pat is sixth at 91. Ryan is one point ahead of Lorne for seventh, and Rob ties K.J for ninth in points. Kyle’s large lead in goals is intact; Stefan moves ahead of Lee for second; Oliver ties Mitch for fourth; Pat lies sixth. Stefan ties Lee for second in assists; Ryan ties K.J. for fifth. Stefan goes past 400 shots; Oliver past 300. Lorne falls behind Terryn to third in save percentage, but passes Shem for third in saves. Joern is 57 saves behind Beron for first. Lorne and Joern pass Bron for fifth in games played. Joern is one game behind Bron for first in games goaltended; Lorne moves from fifth to third. Stefan ties Kyle for first in three-star points. Pat falls ever so slightly into a tie for the lead in GPG with Kyle. He does fall to eighth in APG, raising Troy back to the top five.

On the all-time front: Oliver becomes the first player to score 1,400 points. Bernie needs eleven points for 900. Pat enters the top 30 in all-time scoring and needs nine points for 100; he is already teneth in all-time VRH points. Bernie needs 15 goals for 400. Stefan is twelve assists behind Seamus for fifth. Oliver passes 750 games. Stefan passes 400 games and is three games behind Lee for eighth. Lorne goaltends his 100th game. Stefan passes Oliver for third in three-star points. Pat enters the top 20 in three-star points. Pat now has enough points to qualify for the PPG ranking, and he debuts second behind Robert at 3.50 all-time. As well, he is sixth in APG. Lorne records his fourth consecutive 80- and 90-save sessions. Joern ties Chris Jackins for fourth in 100-save sessions at six. Lorne becomes the third goalie after Nathan and Bron to record three straight 100-save sessions; he comes one save short of three-straight 110-save sessions. Pat has back-to-back 15-goal and 20-point sessions. He has at least 15 points in all four of his career appearances. Stefan ties Seamus for second in 20-pointers with 19, five behind Lorne. Oliver plays in his twentieth straight session, the second time he’s done this in his career (he holds the records at 34). Bernie has the next longest streak in either league at five.

SDF/GDF: These won’t be final until after tomorrow’s BUSH session, but it’s safe to say Pat retains!

Don't forget to check out those Records and Honours on the links page before you leave. Another rookie debut in BUSH tomorrow? It looks to be so! Come back then for more stats.