On the heels of the premiere of Burton Hockey Tonight, another revolution occurred in BUSH tonight. Lee Orr and Nathan Robson got together yesterday, scrounged together assorted bits of plywood, signage and pressboard from the dump, sawed them into suitable sizes, and laid the foundation for the long-dreamed appearance of boards at the John McCormack Park rink.

Lee and his crew left at 4:30 pm to start assembling the boards. The Koth-Kappus crew were inevitably late but joined right in, and soon two teams were working at opposite ends of the rink to fasten the new boards together (there were was the task of sweeping the rink after the massive storms of the past couple of days, of which Shem, Troy and Ben performed an amazing job). There wasn’t quite enough wood to cover the whole rink, but the ends and corners were finished, the most important locations to have boards in place so the ball can roll instead of coming to a halt and forcing players to jam their sticks into or under the chain-link to retrieve the ball. The biggest consternation was the one drill in our possession running out of juice. The rink was also inadvertently given a new name today. Some of the wood used was in the form of recently-discarded signs from local events and businesses (our first sponsors, apparently!). One of the pieces was installed with the front of the sign facing outward, giving rise to the newly christened ALHS Archives Arena at John McCormack Memorial Park.

The first goaltending battle at the Archives Arena was a highly-anticipated rematch of Sunday’s sessions, as Shem Hanna and David Government looked to continue their amazing goaltending runs. With the ‘David Government’ moniker having caught on like wildfire, a massive volley of Government-related puns was unleashed throughout the day (e.g. ‘Government just takes from you and never gives back’; ‘Government bailed us out again’; ‘You can’t avoid the long arm of the Government’; ‘Government (fornicated) us over again’, etc.). Sticks in the middle gave us Lee, Ben, Troy, Bernie and Shem against Terryn, Justin, Mitch and Oliver. With some reservation, the teams were approved and the first game was on. Immediately we knew this would be a different session than last time in one regard: four goals went in past the goalies during the first five minutes, as the game began 2-2. The underdog Team Justin took a 3-2 lead, but Troy was on fire (as he would be all day), and he, Lee and Ben took over to end the game 5-3. Game 2 was a bit more of a whitewash, as Team Shem went up 4-0 before a Terryn Stenseth shot went through at least one layer of the net. However, it was impossible to determine whether it went through both layers of the makeshift Burton netting that has been the bane of BUSH’s existence for the entire decade. It was decided to give Terryn a penalty shot; Shem stoned him and went on to record the only shutout of the session, winning the series for his team. The crew decided that fixing the nets would be the league’s next DIY project. Shem was .925 after the first series to Justin’s .787.

Serie Dos was a very even-paced affair, pitting Troy, Ben, Justin, Bernie and Terryn against Lee, Oliver, Mitch and Shem. Troy continued his torrid pace here, netting six points despite being on the sub team. The highlight goal of the series came in Game 4 with Mitch batting in an Oliver-shot rebound four feet out of the air baseball-style to even the game at 4-4, but Troy and Ben hooked up for the winning goal to take the series 5-3, 5-4. Once again, it was a standing-on-head goaltending battle between Shem and Justin. Especially impressive today was how well the goalies reacted to rebounds.

Game 5 saw Jesse Martin join us at rinkside; there’s a good chance the fishing industry magnate could join the BUSH crew for Monday. Sticks gave us Lee, Troy, Oliver and Shem against Ben, Mitch, Terryn, Bernie and Justin. There was some argument as to whether these teams were fair and whether we should just continue with the previous even teams and make it a best-of-five, but ultimately the stick teams won. Sure enough, Team Shem got out to a 4-2 lead. The highlight was Troy’s goal to make it 2-0, in which he took a pass from Lee, shot, and then went flying over Justin’s extended stick as the ball went in the net. Bobby Orr much? The final goal just wouldn’t come, though, and the final goal took over ten minutes to score, as Justin singlehandedly kept the game going. Shem was no help in the other end either, stifling any chance his opponent had to even things up. The time it took to score the score goal was long enough to make it impossible to get another game in, and so ended another fantastic session.

The combination of cloud cover and the fantastic new boards made for a fast-paced, energetic session. Lee had this to say afterwards: ‘Boards were awesome. Loved it. So worth the effort, and we can cinch them down more and fill in the rest and it will only get even better. I can't believe how well they worked, the biggest difference was when a shot misses the net, instead of it being a dead ball to be grinded out it often comes right back into play. Makes me happy.’

In another session that was poised to be all about goaltending (and it’s not as if it slipped from Sunday), Troy made it about himself, too. A pure ball of energy all day, he was the dominant skater at 9G-12A in just five games, netting 50 shots on goal. Lee (6G-9A) and Ben (7G-8A) tied for second. Mitch led the session in shots with 56. In goal, it was another pair of superlative performances from Shem and Justin. Shem had a outstanding .870 (100 saves plus a shutout) and Justin was also great at .835 on 111 saves.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Ben Troy Bernie Shem def. Terryn Justin Mitch Oliver 5-3 5-0
Troy Ben Justin Bernie Terryn def. Lee Oliver Mitch Shem 5-3 5-4
Lee Troy Oliver Shem def. Ben Mitch Terryn Bernie Justin 5-2

Season Stats: Lee now has a near-hundred point lead in the scoring race. He sits at 343 points. The race for second remains tight between Oliver (249), Mitch (243), Kyle (242), Stefan (236) and Ben (232). Troy jumps from twelfth to ninth in points, knocking Lorne out of the top ten and becoming the record-setting twelfth player to score 100 points this year. Bernie moves one point ahead of Shem for 13th. Ben passes Stefan for fourth in goals. Oliver is one goal behind K.J. for sixth and needs four for 100. Troy passes Ryan for eleventh and become the twelfth 50-goal scorer this year. Lee opens a 15- assist lead on Oliver for first. Ben closes to within five of Stefan for third, and Mitch needs eight for 100. Troy moves into the top ten in assists. Ben is poised to pass Kyle for fourth in shots-on-goal. Shem passes Lorne for fifth in save percentage. Justin passes Nathan for sixth in saves. Shem passes Stefan for fourth in games played and needs two for 100. Justin also moves to sixth in games goaltended. Shem is the fourth goalie with multiple shutouts this year. Ben passes Kyle for third in three-star points; Troy jumps from twelfth to ninth. Troy rises from fifth to second in PPG. Lee drops behind Tony to sixth in GPG. Troy takes the lead in APG ahead of Lee and Ben. Terryn falls out of the top five in shots-per-game as Ben moves into the top five. Justin passes Terryn and Nathan for the lead in saves-per-game; Shem passes Lorne for fifth.

On the all-time front: Oliver becomes the first player to score 1,500 points while Lee becomes the second to score 1,300. Mitch is 16 points behind Kyle for twelfth all-time. Ben passes Simon for 16th all-time, and Troy jumps from 27th to 22nd all-time right behind Patrick and Ryan. Oliver needs ten goals for 600. Bernie needs one for 400. Ben passes Dallas for 16th in goals. Justin needs six assists for 400. Ben passes Simon for 15th in assists. Oliver is 47 shots behind Lorne for second all-time. Shem passes K.J. to move into the top ten in all-time saves. Justin is one game played behind Laird for sixth all-time. Mitch needs three games for 200. Justin is ten games goaltended behind Bron for fifth all-time. Shem is ten games behind Mitch Peterson for tenth in games goaltended, and records his second career shutout. Ben ties Dallas for 14th in three-star points and becomes the 15th player to score 100. Ben passes Lorne and Kyle for fifth in shots-per-game. Shem passes Nathan for third in saves-per-game. Lee passes Lorne for first in all-time 15-pointers with 50. Ben posts his tenth. Troy has five straight. Troy posts back-to-back ten-assisters for the first time. Justin becomes the eighth goalie to have ten 80-savers. Shem has three straight 80-savers while Justin goes back-to-back for the first time (for those wondering, the longest streak is Chris Jackins at an astounding 16 straight 80-savers). They both post back-to-back 90- and 100-savers for the first time. Justin moves to joint fifth in 90-savers and joint fourth in 100-savers. Shem posts 110 saves for the second time. Oliver partakes in his 30th consecutive session, one behind Bernie’s 2003-04 streak for the second –longest of all time. Lee has played 14 straight, and Bernie and Ben ten. Lee needs 33 points to set the record for most points in a season. Mitch’s 151 goals are fourth-highest ever in a season. Lee needs ten assists to set the record for assists in a season; Oliver needs 25. Lee and Mitch rank third and fourth for shots in a single year. Shem has the fifth-most saves ever recorded in a season. Lee has the third-most three-star points in a season, Ben sixth.

SDF/GDF: Pat’s days on top are over, as Ben completes his journey to the top of the rankings in his rookie season; the third player after Lorne and Pat to lead this year. K.J. rises to second and Tony jumps up three to third. Troy makes a big move from 21st to sixth; another session like that one could move him into the lead! Pat takes a big drop from first to 13th as his inactivity begins to affect his ranking. Dom’s on top of the GDF for a sixth session with little movement on the chart overall.

Don’t forget check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave. Lee won’t be around Thursday, but the rest of the gang is threatening to organise a session without him (only once this year had Lee not organised a BUSH session). VRH is scheduled to return this weekend.