Despite two days of sudden and massive storms in the Arrow Lakes valley, the skies were kind to Burton tonight. Not a drop was felt on Archives Arena, merely tears of frustration at Seamus being forty-five minute late for the second time in his last three sessions. He avoided the infamous Bitch Award, however; that dishonour went to Graeme for skipping today. On hand was the inimitable Pilly to take photos (hopefully to be posted tomorrow).

Sticks in the middle gave us Ben, Laird, Nathan, Troy and Terryn versus Seamus, Mitch, Lee, and K.J. Troy took over from the beginning, scoring eight points in the first series as he led his crew to a 5-3, 5-2 series win. The games went quick and it was obvious the goaltending was off. Terryn wiped out twice in what was to be omen for the rest of his adventure today; he wiped out nine times, got nailed in the arm with a slapshot, blew multiple wheels, and pulled his groin in the day’s final game. To top it off, he stabbed his hand with an Allen key on the picnic table after the session.

Jesse’s arrival for Game 3 enabled 4-on-4 action which carried on for the rest of the day. Lee, Troy, Terryn, Mitch and Seamus took the game 5-2 in a game that went less than 15 minutes and saw Nathan post .444. He was promptly traded to Team Seamus for Terryn to start a new series. The move paid off, as Team Seamus won both their games 5-3. Ben pointed out in Game 4, and K.J. began a furious goal scoring run that would carry for the rest of the session. Interestingly, they won the series using two goalies, as Nathan and Seamus switched before Game 5 in an effort to get Seamus ahead of Bernie in the all-time scoring race (it worked).

The final series saw Seamus, Jesse, Nathan, Ben and Mitch defeat Lee, K.J., Terryn and Troy 5-4, 5-4. Troy, the leader scorer all night, was held to a single point in the series as Mitch opened up scoring with three straight goals on three straight breakaways in the span of ninety seconds on Laird, causing Laird to pick up the net and throw it to the ground in frustration. Jesse found his touch here, tripling his scoring production for the session. Lee got in seven points in a losing cause, but it was Ben and Mitch who ruled the final session for Team Nathan. With K.J. tying up Game 7 4-4 to send the game to a golden goal, Ben immediately grabbed the puck and wristed home a shot from centre as the last of the daylight faded behind Mount Ingersoll.

It looked early on as though it was Troy’s session, but the stats began to even out as the night progressed, and ultimately it was Lee and Ben taking the day thanks to huge assist total (6G-15A on 45 shots for Lee, 9G-12A on 51 shots for Ben). Troy (7G-11A) wound up tying with K.J. for third; K.J. had 14 goals but just four assists. A subpar day in goal all around. Laird led the day with .783 on 94 shots. Seamus played the first half and notched .776; Nathan played the second half and got .772.

Here are the game scores:
Ben Laird Nathan Troy Terryn def. Seamus Mitch Lee K.J. 5-3 5-2
Lee Troy Terryn Mitch Seamus def. Ben Laird Nathan Jesse K.J. 5-2
Ben Laird Terryn Jesse K.J. def. Lee Troy Nathan Mitch Seamus 5-3 5-3
Seamus Jesse Nathan Ben Mitch def. Lee K.J. Terryn Troy Laird 5-4 5-4

Season Stats: Lee sets a new single-season Burton record with his 379th point of the year, surpassing his old record from 2006 (375). This record will be much larger by the time this season is done. Ben moves up to second at 269, while Mitch passes Oliver to move into third by a point at 258. K.J. becomes the sixth player this year to score 200 points. Troy passes Rob for ninth, and Terryn enters the top 15 for the first time. Lee needs 14 goals to reach 200 on the year. Ben is two goals behind Kyle for third. K.J. passes Pat and Oliver for sixth and is just three behind Stefan for fifth. Lee needs seven assists to become the first player to score 200 in a year, while Mitch becomes the sixth player to score 100 assists this year. Troy passes Shem for eighth in assists. Ben passes Stefan for third in shots. Lee passes 200 three-star and total star points for the year. K.J. ties Oliver for sixth in three-star points. Troy falls behind Kyle to fourth in PPG. Ben ties Lee for fifth in GPG. Terryn falls behind Stefan to sixth in APG. Lee’s 15 assists tie for third-best in a session this year.

On the all-time front: Seamus passes Bernie for fifth in all-time scoring with 931 points. Mitch is one point behind Kyle for twelfth all-time and needs five points for 400. Lee becomes the second player to score 600 assists. Seamus is 24 assists behind Stefan for fifth. K.J. needs five assists for 300. Mitch is 19 assists behind Kyle for twelfth; Ben passes Robert for 14th. Ben passes Robert and Simon for 15th in shots on goal. Nathan falls behind Shem to fifth in all-time save percentage but passes Chris Jackins for second in all-time saves. Lee needs 13 games for 500. Seamus is seven games played behind Stefan for eighth. Mitch becomes the 14th player to play 200 games. Laird passes Chris Jackins to become the all-time leader in games goaltended. Nathan is seven games behind Joern for third. K.J. needs 15 three-star points for 300. Lee passes Lorne for the lead in total star points with 785. K.J. ties Justin for sixth in 15-pointers with 27. Mitch ties Kyle for eighth (14) and Ben enters the top ten (12). K.J. extends his record 15-pointer streak to 13; Troy has six straight, Lee four and Ben three. Lee ties Lorne for most 20-pointers all-time with 23. K.J. ties Seamus and Justin for fourth in ten-goal sessions with 22; he has four in a row. Troy has three ten-assisters in a row; Lee has two. Laird has back-to-back 80-save and 90-save sessions. Lee plays his 16th consecutive session, Ben his 12th, Terryn his fifth. As mentioned above, Lee has set a new single-season scoring record with 379 points, and is poised to obliterate it with three months still left in the main season. Ben’s 268 points rank sixth-best. Lee is seven assists away from becoming the first player to score 200 in a season. Lee becomes the second player to score 200 three-star points in a single season.

SDF/GDF: Big upheaval this week on the SDF. Pat’s monster session just edges him back into first ahead of Ben as they trade the top spot back and forth; however, next session will see Pat fall below the minimum session divisor and should either give the lead to Ben or to the new third place man, Troy, who would have moved into first place had he had two more points today. Stefan and Lee are also tight to the leaders in fourth in fifth (though Stefan’s vacation in Europe will affect his ranking as well), meaning any one of Ben, Troy or Lee will be first after the weekday BUSH session. Tony is the big victim this week thanks to Pat’s dominance over the VRH session. Seamus re-enters the top ten despite not even having played the session minimum; he should skyrocket again next ranking. Dom stays on top of the GDF for an eighth consecutive ranking but his time is running out unless he plays again soon.

Don’t forget check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave. A weekday session is in the works for BUSH. And, hey, we found out today that Nathan actually used to work with the one-and-only Paul Irrelevante!