For the second straight session, it threatened to rain on BUSH’s parade. The sky was dark grey all day (an expected visit from VRH’s Steve Weatherhead didn’t materialise when he became convinced it would pour), but ultimately not one drop came down on John McCormack Park. The cool weather allowed for an earlier start time, which meant the guys could go as long as they wanted to. With Troy Waldron returning to the fold and Shem Hanna facing Golden Joe Leonard in net, it appeared to be a stacked session. By the end of the session, perhaps the staring goalies had wished it rained.

There was a shower in Burton today, but it was a shower of pucks being blasted from the stick of Ben de Wit, who has now cemented himself as the preeminent skater on the circuit. Series 1 saw his team of Oliver, Mitch, and Shem wipe out Joe, Lee, Kyle, K.J. and Troy 5-1, 5-2. Ben had nine points, Mitch had six and only Oliver had three. Shem was in the .840s here, and that was essentially the highlight of his day as he re-tore his groin and endured a fair amount of pain for the rest of the day. Joe’s save percentage was .667 after the first series, and he would have an up-and-down day all session long.

Game Three began a new series with Lee, Kyle, Ben, Mitch and Joe in tow against Lee, Oliver, Shem, K.J. and Troy. This game was quick and plentiful, ending 5-4 for Team Joe despite four points from Troy. By this time in the session, however, Troy had somehow managed to blow SEVEN wheels, and had to bench himself until he could make a full wheel replacement. This forced Lee to switch sides for a game, and he regretted that move quickly. Ben and Kyle made for a fearsome team, and the game ended in less than ten minutes, 5-0, giving Joe his first career shutout. Game Five saw Troy return to the session, and Lee returned to his original team to resume the series and win 5-2. The highlight/lowlight of the game was a Kyle Grenier shot that Oliver intercepted in front of his own goal only to accidentally go five-hole on his own goaltender Shem; the first own goal in quite a few sessions.

At this point in the session, balance was becoming quite a issue. Every team Ben was on was winning, and with the exception of one game, quite handily at that. It was decided to only have Ben on sub teams from this point. This gave way to Joe, Kyle, Troy, Ben and K.J. defeating Lee, Shem, Oliver and Mitch 5-3, 5-4. Exasperated with the play and ailing from his groin tear, Shem gave up the ghost in net in favour of skates. Troy had blown another three wheels in the meantime, and offered to relieve Shem in goal. Long past the point of sticks in the middle, Lee, K.J. and Kyle were put on a team with Troy to go against Joe, Mitch, Oliver, Shem and Ben. In making the teams, Lee apparently was unaware that Troy is an actual hockey goaltender by trade, and the teams were now lopsided in the other direction. With Ben taking a shift on the bench, Lee, K.J. and Kyle put home four goals en route to a 5-2 victory; Troy stopping 15 of 17 shots. A scary moment occurred in the last third of the game when a Grenier shot deflected off K.J.’s stick and nailed Mitch directly in the right eye, dropping him flat to the ground unable to speak for about 30 seconds. It was quite obvious that his eye would be dark black the next morning. Game Nine was much of the same only with another goal for the losing squad, 5-3.

With Kyle, Lee, and K.J. having used the previous series to get themselves back into the session, one last game was played with Shem, Joe, Ben, Kyle and Mitch taking on Lee, Troy, K.J., and Oliver. Kyle, now operating at full speed, pointed out and helped his crew win 5-2. Troy continued to impress, and Joe was finally his golden self.

Ben dominated the entire session, and the only reason the statistics were this close were due to the purposeful balancing of teams in the last three games, which allowed Kyle, Lee and K.J. the opportunity to catch up. Ben had another balanced session of 14G-15A to lead the way. Kyle was second, charging hard at the end to grab assists. He finished at 16G-11A on 72 shots. Lee picked up third with 11G-15A. Honourable mention to K.J. with 15 goals despite blowing eleven wheels and finishing the final game on what essentially amounted to four wheel hubs, Troy with 14 assists despite only skating six games, Mitch coming back from the puck in the face to finish the session and notch 18 points, and Oliver playing a huge defensive game with 11 assists. The starting goaltenders were hung out to dray all session; Shem’s groin tear wore on him after Game Three (facing Ben three straight games didn’t help) and he wound up with a career low .746. Joe had an atrocious start of .667 in the first series, and battled back in the second, finally evening out with .744 on 110 saves and including a shutout. It wasn’t until Troy entered the net that goaltending finally came to par, as Troy and Joe were impressive in the final three games. Troy ended up with the fourth-best rookie goaltending performance ever of .860.

Here are the game scores:
Oliver Ben Mitch Shem def. Kyle Joe Lee K.J. Troy 5-1 5-2
Lee Kyle Ben Mitch Joe def. Oliver Shem K.J. Troy 5-4
Kyle Ben Mitch Joe def. Lee Oliver Shem K.J. 5-0
Lee Kyle Ben Mitch Joe def. Oliver Shem K.J. Troy 5-2
Joe Kyle Troy Ben K.J. def. Lee Shem Oliver Mitch 5-3 5-4
Lee K.J. Kyle Troy def. Mitch Oliver Joe Shem Ben 5-2 5-3
Shem Joe Ben Kyle Mitch def. Lee Troy K.J. Oliver 5-2

Season Stats: Lee holds a 47-point lead over the now-second place Kyle. Oliver passes 200 points and is seven behind Stefan for third. Mitch needs three points for 200. Ben passes Pat for seventh. Troy needs eight points for 100. The goal race tightens between Lee, Kyle and Mitch 133-129-124. K.J. passes Pat for fifth and is just five goals behind Stefan for fourth. Ben moves into a tie with K.J. for fifth in assists while Troy moves back into the top ten in assists. Lee takes back the lead in shots from Stefan with Mitch now eight shots behind Stefan for second. K.J. is ten shots behind Oliver for fifth. Shem falls behind Kyle to fifth in save percentage on the year. Joe jumps from tenth to seventh in saves. Oliver becomes the first person to play 100 games in a season since 2006. Lee and Mitch pass Stefan for second in games played; Shem passes Bernie for fifth and Kyle passes Lorne for seventh. Joe moves to sixth in games goaltended. Joe becomes the seventh goalie with a shutout this year. Kyle ties Stefan for second in three-star points; Ben moves up to seventh. Troy passes K.J. for fourth in PPG; both fall below 3.00. Troy falls out of the top five in GPG behind Tony and Lorne. Troy leaps up to second in APG, just behind Lee. Troy falls from third to sixth in shots-per-game behind Justin, K.J. and Lee. Ben’s 29 points tie for fourth-highest in a session this year. Ben and Lee’s 15 assists each rank third-best this year. Kyle’s 72 shots are third-highest in a session this year.

On the all-time front: Lee is just 23 points behind Lorne for second on the all-time scoring list. K.J. passes 700 points. Mitch passes Robert for 13th. Ben moves from 23rd to 19th in all-time points. Troy becomes the 29th player in history to score 100 points. Lee needs eleven goals for 700. K.J. passes Justin for sixth in goals. Kyle becomes the 12th player to score 200 goals, Mitch the 13th. Mitch passes Robert for 13th in assists, and Ben enters the top 20. Mitch passes Graeme for tenth in shots. Shem falls behind Pat Strachan to sixth in save percentage, but passes Brodie for eleventh in all-time saves. Oliver needs seven games to become the first player to play 800. Lee passes Justin for sixth in games played. Joe records his first career shutout. Lee becomes the first player to score 700 three-star points; Kyle passes Robert for eighth. Troy’s .860 is the fourth-best rookie session of all-time, finally knocking Lyle’s 2000 debut out of the top five. Lee’s 269 points this year are tied for fifth-highest in a single season; his 136 assists are sole fifth. Lee’s 646 shots on goal are the fourth-highest total in a single season. Lee is two 15-pointers behind Lorne for first all time (49-47). K.J. is one behind Justin for sixth all-time at 27. K.J. has twelve of them in a row, breaking Lee Orr’s all-time record of eleven set back in 2003. Kyle has eight straight, Ben has six, Troy has four, and Lee and Oliver have three. Lee is also two 20-pointers away from first (Lorne has 24 to Lee’s 22), and two 25-pointers behind Lorne for first (12-10). Ben has three 20-pointers in a row. Ben has his first 25-pointer. K.J. has three straight ten-goal sessions. He passes Lee and Seamus for third in 15-goal sessions with seven. Kyle’s record-breaking streak of ten-assisters is at five; Oliver has three straight. Joe has three straight 80-save sessions and records his first 90- and 100-save session. Oliver has the third-longest consecutive session streak of all time at 25, six behind Bernie’s streak of 2003-2004. Mitch has a streak of ten, Lee nine, Shem six, and Ben and K.J. five.

SDF/GDF: Pat stays on top for a seventh consecutive SDF ranking. Ben is rapidly closing in on the lead four, Tony makes a huge leap from 23rd to seventh, and Troy re-enters the top ten. On the GDF, Dom’s debut session was so huge that it actually enabled him to debut at number one with the fourth-highest GDF rating ever at .8800. Shem falls to third behind Terryn, and Joe falls from fourth to tenth.

The BUSH vrew is wrecked and there may not be a weekday session this week. Shem is certainly done for a while. We will have action on the weekend as usual, though, and your humble statistician will be live and in person at Ambleside Park next weekend for VRH excitement. Until then, check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave.