It was well-known coming into Sunday’s session that a bloated number of players was likely. How to deal with it was the issue. Ultimately the year-2000 stand-by of tournaments was discarded in favour of four-on-four, and the gamble paid off. Still, arrivals were staggered so as to provide some opportunity for three-on-three action at the beginning of the session. The session began an hour earlier than usual thanks to cloud cover keeping the golden disc in the sky at bay.

With K.J., Ben and Terryn not arriving for another hour, three games of three-on-three were played with Lee, Shem, Stefan and Andrew coming back from 3-1 down to take the win over Lyle, Mitch, Oliver and Dane. Stefan scored nine points in the first two games, leaving him at 999 for his career. Lyle was off in these first two games, notching just .583, but Shem truly was ShemWow! The rest of the crew arrived just a play began in the third game, won by Lee, Andrew, Lyle, Kyle and Dane 5-2.

The moment of truth arrived in Game Four: four-on-four with subs for the first time in nine year on McCormack. The change was immediate: no slap shots, lots of passing and clustering. With Terryn’s arrival, Shem went back on skates, capping a career session in goal. Lyle, having loosened up, was now pure money, and a fifty-minute slugfest ensued. Both goalies were on fire, and so was Ben, pointing out in the game as his crew of Stefan, Oliver, Dane, Lyle and himself won 5-4. Stef got his 1000th point, and Ben put a nice exclamation point on the game by backhanding a rebound from an Andrew Watson shot out of the air top left corner on Terryn to win the game. All three games in the best-of-five went the distance with amazingly balanced teams and wonderful goaltending from both Lyle and Terryn. Lyle was back in the .800s in this series while it was obvious Terryn was going to be close to Shem by the end of the day. Game Six had an amusing moment: after a goal on his team, Stefan was going to take the puck up as usual, or, rather, he tried. In his attempt to shoot the puck up the rink, he somehow managed to simply bank his clearing attempt off of K.J. five feet away and past his own goaltender Lyle.

Lyle and Andrew left after Game Six. Everyone wanted to play, but absolutely no one else wanted to goaltend. After a few minutes of arguing, it was decided that the ultimate loser of a shootout on Terryn would have to goaltend. Shem, having already sacrificed himself in net, was exempt, as were Stefan and Oliver, the only two players in Burton history to be banned from playing in net ever again. The rules were simple: everyone shoots until one person has not scored; that person dons the pads. Grenier went first and buried it top shelf. Mitch, Dane, and K.J. were stopped. Ben scored and was exempted. Lee was stopped, a disheartening prospect for a man with 50-year-old knees. Terryn stoned everyone on the second round of shots. K.J. and Lee managed to escape with their pride by scoring in round three, leaving us with Mitch vs. Dane. Mitch, second in all-time games played without having goaltended behind Graeme, scored in round four, leaving it up to Dane. Mysteriously (nudge, wink), Terryn went down before Dane even wound up, allowing Dane a wide-open net to bury it. Terryn decided to play fair the next two round and stopped all four shots. Finally in round seven, Mitch put it home, leaving it up to Dane to respond likewise. He couldn’t, and the youngest Olsen brother made his debut in net.

K.J. turned it on in Game Seven, partnering with Kyle to snipe five quick goals and lead his team (Mitch, Oliver and Terryn) to victory 5-1. The team switched goalies, but the 5-1 score against Dane occurred again, this time in favour of Lee, Stefan, Ben, Terryn and Shem. It was here that we really began to notice the huge volume of assists coming out of this session thanks to the necessity of passing. In particular, Lee had a good shot at Lorne’s session assist record, and Ben was putting up apples at a torrid pace despite being three games behind the rest. Oliver’s two-session long goalscoring drought finally came to an end with him burying the winning goal. As Dane steadied himself in net, balance was found in the final series with K.J., Ben, Stefan, Oliver and Dane winning the first game 5-4 before Shem, Terryn, Mitch, Lee and Kyle won the last 5-3, ending the series in a tie as everyone was exhausted from a marathon four-hour, ten-game-and-a-shootout session. And Lee indeed got his assist record.

Well, it’s not 40 points, but the balance in BUSH these days reared its head again, especially in four-on-four, and this led to big assist totals. Stefan took the day with 14G-14A on 64 shots. Right behind was Lee with 8G and a record-breaking 19A. Kyle went the other way, scoring 15G and adding 11A to finish third. Had Ben been there for the first three games, he would have led the way, going 6G-15A in seven games. K.J. notched 13 goals in his seven games. It’s a shame Stefan goes back to Vancouver on Wednesday, because the big five, especially Ben have been clicking together wonderfully. Oliver, as usual, was king of defence; just the one goal but 14 huge assists. In goal, Shem and Terryn were dominant. Shem posted a career high .863 in his three games while Terryn stopped 126 of 150 shots for .840. Lyle’s .752 would have been back over .800 had he stuck around; he was pure gold in the second and third series. Dane’s debut ended with .683.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Shem Stefan Andrew def. Lyle Mitch Kyle Oliver Dane 5-3 5-2
Lee Andrew Lyle Kyle Dane def. Mitch Stefan Oliver Shem 5-2
Stefan Oliver Dane Andrew Ben Lyle def. Lee Shem Mitch K.J. Terryn Kyle 5-4 5-4 5-4
Mitch K.J. Kyle Oliver Terryn def. Lee Stefan Ben Dane Shem 5-1
Lee Stefan Ben Terryn Shem def. Mitch K.J. Kyle Oliver Dane 5-1
K.J. Ben Stefan Oliver Dane vs. Shem Terryn Mitch Lee Kyle 5-4 3-5

Season Stats: Lee and Stefan each cross 200 points; Kyle is 13 away. K.J. passes Pat for sixth in points. Ben becomes the ninth player to score 100 points this year and passes Lorne for eighth. Kyle takes over the lead in goals as he, Lee and Mitch all cross 100. Stefan needs one goal for 100. Lee, Stefan and Oliver all pass 100 assists as Mitch passes K.J. for fifth and Ben jumps to seventh. Stefan opens his lead in shots a bit over Lee. Ben falls behind Troy in shooting percentage to sixth. Kyle falls behind Pat to second in GPG. Ben shoots up to third in APG while Kyle and K.J. drop to third and fourth. K.J. falls to third in shots-per-game while Lee falls from the top five. Terryn holds the lead in save percentage and saves-per-game. Lyle drops to seventh in save percentage. Lyle passes Lorne for fourth in saves while Shem passes 500 on the year. Lee and Mitch jump to third in games played. Stefan is ten three-star points behind Lee for first; Kyle is just five points behind Stefan. Stefan’s 28 points rank fifth-best in a session this year. Lee’s 19 assists naturally lead the way for sessions. Shem’s .863 is fourth-best this season. Terryn’s 126 saves tie for third.

On the all-time front: Lee needs three points for 1,200; he closes to within 66 points of Lorne for second all-time. Stefan becomes the fourth player to score 1,000 points in Burton Hockey. Kyle passes Robert for 12th all-time. Mitch becomes the 15th player to score 300 points. Ben becomes the 28th player to score 100. Lee passes Oliver to become the all-time BUSH scoring leader at 1,188 points. Stefan is ten goals behind Oliver for third all-time. K.J. becomes the 7th player to score 400 goals. Kyle needs four goals for 200. Lee re-passes Bernie for second in assists. Lee is eight shots behind Lorne for first all-time. Stefan is 68 shots behind Oliver for third. Terryn now ranks as the all-time leader in save percentage in Burton Hockey. Lee is eight games played behind Justin for sixth all-time. Lyle is eight games goaltended behind Justin for sixth all-time. Stefan becomes the third player to score 500 three-star points. Kyle passes Robert for eighth all-time. Ben moves up to sixth in APG. Kyle drops to fourth in shots-per-game. Terryn moves to second in saves-per-game. Ben’s streak of ten-goal sessions ends at three. Ben records his first ten-assist session. Kyle and Stefan have three straight ten-assisters, tying a Burton record with Dallas and Seamus. Stefan ties Seamus for fourth in 15-pointers at 31. K.J. has ten straight, one short of Lee’s all-time record. Mitch has eight straight 15-pointers, Kyle seven, and Ben four. Lee is three 20-pointers behind Lorne for first all-time with 21 with Stefan one behind. Ben has his first 20-pointer. Lee ties Robert for second in 25-pointers with eight; Stefan and Kyle are tied for third with Seamus at six. Shem’s streak of 80-savers ends at four; Lyle’s at a massive eight, the second-longest streak ever. Lyle’s streak of 90-savers ends at three. Terryn has back-to-back 110+ save sessions, the fourth goalie to do so after Nathan, Bron and Lorne. Oliver plays his 23rd consecutive session; the fifth-longest streak ever. Mitch is at eight, Lee is at seven and Stefan is at five. As mentioned above, Lee’s 19 assists is the most ever in one session. Lee’s 105 three-star points tie for the fifth highest total in a single season.

SDF/GDF: For the fifth ranking in a row, Pat leads the SDF. The biggest move is Ben jumping to seventh. Troy and Sam fall from the top ten due to inactivity, while Rob and Mitch jump into the top ten. On the GDF, we have a new king: Shem’s continued rise in net leads him into first with the sixth highest ranking ever of .8579 (literally two saves better than Nathan). Terryn re-debuts in third behind former leader Nathan while Joe has a bad session fall off and thus moves up to fourth. This all drops Lorne from second to fifth. Bron’s session on Saturday takes him down from fourth to eighth.

Check out those Records and Honours on the links page before you leave. It may be Saturday, it may be Sunday, but both leagues will be back this weekend, so make sure you’re back at BurtonHockey.com for the action!