When Lee Orr moved Thursday’s session up to Wednesday, Terryn Stenseth had a surprise of his own, as he touted the arrival of a rookie defensive powerhouse to rival anyone Burton’s seen to date. Sure enough, Brad Gibson lived up to the hype, as he and nine of BUSH’s finest put together a 4-on-4 masterpiece at McCormack Park.

The line-up was identical to Sunday, save from Brad replacing Nathan Robson and Lyle Detta replacing Laird Bilinski. Seamus O’Connor would be skating today, and Terryn Stenseth, the second-leading goaltender of all-time, would re-enter the net. Sticks and a trade gave Lyle Ben, Mitch, K.J. and Seamus; Terryn had Brad, Lee, Troy and Jesse. What ensued was twenty-five minutes of the most fluid, enjoyable, beautiful hockey ever seen in Burton. Set play after set play, quick possession plays, outstanding defence. But no scoring. Even a temporary reduction to 3-on-3 after fifteen minutes due to Ben obliterating a wheel (followed soon by Lee) could not affect the play of the two goalies, who stopped 35 shots between them before one of the flukier goals ever, when Brad’s one-timer from a Troy feed hit the defender K.J. in the foot and fooled Lyle. It took just five more minutes for the game to end 5-4. Terryn made 34 saves; Lyle 30. K.J. was in on all five of his team’s goals. Ben never even saw the rink during the five minutes of scoring. Game 2 brought the goalies back down to earth if only slightly, as Ben returned with a vengeance, hooking up with K.J. on three goals to win 5-2. The goals were spread out a little more evenly over the course of the game this time. Most shocking of all was scoring leader Lee being held to just two assists.

With the first series having shown the solid positional play of all of the skaters, the second series then demonstrated how nearly any combination of players would produce even teams, as Ben, Lee, K.J., Brad and Lyle barely edged Seamus, Troy, Terryn, Jesse and Mitch 5-4, 5-4. Team Terryn held a 2-0 lead in Game 3 before three consecutive Ben wrist shots from behind centre went in over the span of 90 seconds and blew the game wide open. Brad, the fiftieth player in Burton Hockey this season, found his scoring touch in Game 4 with three points, marauding the rink to block shots and strip puck from opponents.

Already, it was getting near dark at 8:40 pm, and one more game was eked out. Terryn was sick of losing and sick of facing Ben; the refusal to lose once more helped guide his crew to a 5-3 victory which could have gone either way. Lee’s passing touch returned in this game, helping feed Ben. Lyle robbed Lee of any goals, however, and the scoring leader would shockingly finish last in a session where there were really no losers, no pylons and no slowpokes. Today’s session could be taken to any rink or any league anywhere and not look out of place. For pure overall skill and performance level of the players, and for the overall quality and flow of the game, today’s session simply has no precedent in Burton Hockey. It wasn’t flashy or statistically superlative. It didn’t have to be. It was just f**king brilliant.

Initially, it seemed as though the goaltenders would be unstoppable, and while they were good, once scoring finally got under way, the session returned to the players. Ben and K.J. were the dominant scorers all day, and put a fair bit of distance between themselves and the rest of the pack. Ben wound up with 7G-11A today, and one wonders what would have happened had he not missed essentially the entire scoring portion of Game 1 with the blown wheel. K.J. continues his fierce sniping tear, scoring 14 goals and adding four assists on 51 shots. 14G-4A is exactly what he got last session, also a 4-on-4, but tonight he accomplished the feat in two less games. You have to go down to 11P to find third star Troy. Both goalies notched 92 saves, but Lyle was on the winning end of four of the five games, letting in four fewer shots en route to a second goalie star and .829. Terryn had a shaky middle stint bookended by two outstanding games; he finished at .800 even and notched a third star. While he was defensively stellar, Lee was invisible for the first three games and was shutout from goalscoring, a rare occurrence from the man on track to win a fourth scoring title.

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

Season Stats: Lee still needs 14 points to become the first player to score 300 points in a single season; Ben has cut the scoring lead to a ‘paltry’ 100 points. K.J. is closing in fast on Stefan for fifth in points, just 17 behind. Ben passes Kyle for third in goals; K.J. passes Stefan for fifth; Troy passes Lorne for tenth and is just two behind Rob for ninth. Lee becomes the first player to record 200 assists in a year. Ben closes to within 14 of Oliver for second. Mitch is three assists behind Kyle for fifth. K.J. needs eight for 100. Lee needs 52 shots on goal for 1,000. Mitch passes 800, Ben passes 700 and K.J. passes 500. K.J. passes Tony for fourth in shooting percentage. Lyle passes Lorne for fourth in saves, needs five more for 700, and is 33 behind Joern for third. Terryn passes Laird for eighth in saves. Lee is eight games played behind Oliver for first. Ben needs five games for 100. Lyle passes Lorne for fourth in games goaltended. K.J. passes Pat for fifth in three-star points. Lyle passes Lorne for third in goalie star points. K.J. is five total star points behind Bron for fifth. Ben moves over 3.00 PPG and up to fourth as Lee and Troy fall below 3.00 PPG to fourth and sixth in PPG. K.J. moves up to fifth. K.J. passes Kyle for second in GPG. The race for the PAG lead remains extremely tight between Troy, Lee and Ben. K.J. passes Troy for sixth in shots-per-game. Lyle moves from eighth to sixth in saves-per-game.

On the all-time front: Mitch passes Kyle for twelfth in points and becomes the 12th player to score 400 points. Ben needs 14 points for 300 and is 28 points behind Joe Chwachka for 15th. Troy passes Pat to move into the top 20 all-time scorers. Seamus needs 13 goals for 500. Seamus is twenty assists behind Stefan for fifth all-time. K.J. needs one assist for 300. Mitch is 16 assists behind Kyle for 12th. Troy moves into the top 20 in assists. Lee becomes the first player to record 3,500 shots on goal. Troy passes Rob Hajdu to enter the top 20 in shots. K.J. passes Dylan for fifth in all-time shooting percentage. Lee needs eight games for 500. Seamus is three games behind Stefan for eighth all-time. Ben needs five games for 100. K.J. becomes the seventh player to record 300 three-star points and 400 total star points. Ben ties Joe Chwachka for eleventh in three-star points. Lyle ties Joern for seventh in goalie star points. Ben passes Dustin Marchischuk for fourth in PPG and goes back over 3.00. He does fall behind Steve Weatherhead to fifth in shots-per-game, however. K.J. passes Justin and Seamus for fourth in ten-goal sessions with 23; he has five in a row. Troy’s ten-assister streak ends at three and Lee’s ends at two, but Ben now has a streak of two. K.J. passes Justin for sixth in 15-pointer with 28; he has a record 14 in a row. Troy’s streak ends at six; Lee’s ends at four; Ben’s streak goes up to four. Terryn has three consecutive 80- and 90-save sessions, but his streaks of 100 and 110 both end at two. Lyle becomes the fifth goalie to have ten 90-save sessions. Lee plays his 17th consecutive session, Ben his twelfth, and Terryn his sixth. Ben now has the fifth-highest scoring season ever at 286. Lee becomes the first player ever to score 200 assists in a season. Ben has the fifth-highest assist total in a season at 144. Mitch becomes the third player to record 800 shots on goal in a season. Ben’s 150 three-star points are the fourth-highest total ever in a year, and the fifth-highest total star point total in a season.

SDF/GDF: Ben returns to the top of the SDF ranking, once again deposing Pat after a one-ranking drop to second. Whereas last week five players were over a 100 rating, this week Ben stands alone, with K.J. making a jump to second from sixth. Pat’s big 40-point session drops off, sending him plummeting to 15th with just one session left on his ranking. Stefan now begins falling with his absence in Europe, as does Kyle with his elbow troubles. Lorne falls off the SDF for the first time since 2005. On the GDF, Dom enjoys what should be, barring an appearance in net this weekend, his second-to-last time on top of the ranking and ninth-straight total. Bron’s wretched performance against Pat in his 40-pointer comes off, and thus Bron skyrockets to second; much more of an accurate reflection of his skill.

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.