Even when nothing seems to be on the horizon this year, hockey somehow manages to happen. Lee may be taking a break from organising for the moment, but Ben stepped up to the plate and put together a youthful session featuring two highly-touted rookies (Taylor Reitmeier and Luke Krbyla) that we’ve been waiting to get for months. The rookies brought the goods in a session that didn’t quite go as planned- and was all the better as a result.

Ben had Nathan Robson lined up in goal, but come the scheduled start time of 6pm, Norton was nowhere to be found. A last ditch attempt to land Lyle Detta went unanswered, and to our dismay, the payphone, booth and all, had been removed from the Burton General Store, leaving us at 6:45 with no goaltender. Taylor was already schedule to goaltend, we weren’t going to ask Luke to goaltend in his first session since he wasn’t expecting it, and Graeme is never an option, leaving five guys to suck it up and face the possibility of playing netminder. Names were drawn on old used-up wheels which were then thrown into the air until one wheel remained facing name-side-up. After three tosses, Nathan Wiebe drew goal.

Nathan going in goal would proved to be very fortunate, as sticks in the middle produced the lopsided teams of Lee, Ben and Seamus versus Terryn, Luke and Graeme. They decided to give Nathan to the veterans and Taylor to the opposition, creating a team entirely consisting of 2009 rookies (in fact, five of the eight players tonight were rookies). What ensued was a one-sided shootout that was only remotely tempered by the amazing goaltending performances of Taylor and Nathan. It took 52 shots on goal in 20 minutes from the vets to put Taylor away 5-1. Taylor was forced to stand on his head but was up to the challenge, including one sequence where Ben had five straight shots from the crease. Nathan did what he had to do, stopping 17 of 18 shots to take his first win. Not bad for a guy who had never even donned goalie pads in his life until 20 minutes earlier.

Seamus was traded for Graeme, and these would be the teams that would stick for the rest of the evening. Taylor’s goaltending reputation was already well-established before he ever got to Burton, but now was the moment of truth for Nathan as he would be facing a Burton master in Seamus. As well, Luke was now past the first-game jitters and came into his own from this point in the session, balancing the teams for the rest of the night. Team Nathan got a quick 5-1 victory to start, but Seamus insisted on keeping the teams as he felt the chemistry building between himself, Terryn and Luke. This feeling was born out as his crew came back from a 3-0 deficit to take Game 3 5-3. On a beauty play, Luke stole the ball from Ben, skated in, and picked the top right corner past Nathan to win. Feeling the momentum, Team Taylor continued their hot streak, going up 4-1 before Ben and Lee clawed back to change the game and win 5-4 to take the series. Nathan and Taylor never ceased to amaze the entire session, and return visits to the net are eagerly anticipated from the two young stars.

An amazing feat today as two goalies achieved first-star status in their rookie goaltending sessions in the same session. Nathan was flirting with the all-time goaltending record until the middle of the second game; still his .859 (fifth-best ever for a rookie) on 67 saves was extremely impressive as he made saves that someone who had never played goal before had no business making. Taylor was victimised all evening by having Ben and Lee fire on him the entire session, but he robbed them on so many chances that it would be unfair to say things were rigged against. He finished at .849, sixth-best ever for a rookie, and potted 101 saves in just four games. Despite the excellent goaltending (or maybe because of the balance of the goaltending giving everyone a chance to register equal stats), three players managed 3.00 PPG. Ben led the way as usual with 6G-7A on 40 shots. Seamus (5G-7A, 47) and Lee (8G-4A, 47) tied for second star. Luke notched an impressive seven assists in his rookie session.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Seamus Ben Nathan def. Taylor Terryn Luke Graeme 5-1
Lee Graeme Nathan Ben def. Seamus Terryn Luke Taylor 5-1 3-5 5-4

Season Stats: Lee is just two points short of becoming the first player to score 400 points in a year; Ben needs one point for 300. Lee needs six goals for 200. Ben is six assists behind Oliver for second. Lee needs five shots on goal for 1,000 and is four games played behind Oliver for first. Ben moves up to fourth in games played (tied with Bernie) and needs one game for 100. Ben passes Lee for second in APG while Seamus debuts on the list in fourth ahead of Pat. Seamus also debuts on the shots-per-game list in second.

On the all-time front: Ben needs one point to become the 16th player to score 300, and is 15 behind Joe for 15th. Lee becomes the second player to reach 750 goals, and is 35 behind Lorne for the all-time lead. Seamus needs eight goals for 500. Seamus is thirteen assists behind Stefan for fifth all-time. Ben passes Joe for 14th in shots on goal. Lee needs four more games to become the fifth player to play 500; he would also tie Joern for fourth. Seamus passes Stefan for eighth in games played. Ben needs one game to become the 23rd player to play 100 games. Lee needs five points to become the first player to reach 795 total star and three-star points. Seamus becomes the third player to record 600 total star points. Ben has now already entered the top ten in three-star points and top 15 in total star points. Ben passes Steve Weatherhead for fourth in shots-per-game. Nathan’s .859 and Taylor’s .849 are the fifth and sixth-best goaltending sessions of all-time for rookies. Taylor’s 950 PPS is sixth-best for rookie goaltenders. Ben’s ten-assist streak ends at two, and his 15-pointer streak ends at four. Lee plays his 18th consecutive session, Ben his 14th, and Terryn his seventh. Lee needs two points to become the first player to score 400 in a single season. He needs four goals to record the third 200-goal season ever. Ben’s 148 goals are the sixth-highest total in a single year. Ben’s 151 assists are the fourth-highest single-year total ever, as are his 744 shots on goal. Lee’s 215 total star points are the second-highest season total ever; Ben’s 165 ranks fifth.

SDF/GDF: The ranking will not be complete until Saturday’s VRH session is completed. What is known is that Dom will spend his last week on top of the GDF before falling off completely. The top of the SDF is up in the air between Ben and Pat as usual.

Don’t forget check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave. While we anticipate next week’s upcoming BUSH supersession, VRH is coming back this Saturday. Come back then!