One of the more unique sessions in a long time started ignominiously enough with a rotating door of goaltenders doing battle against the all-time goaltending champion, but by the end of the evening, unexpected goaltending history was made for the all the right reasons.

BUSH has no shortage of players, but most of its best goaltenders are also great skaters, so when Nathan Robson and Lyle Detta aren’t around, that often produces an argument as to who will mind net. Despite ten players scheduled for the day’s action, only K.J. was committed to net. Just as a wheel-toss similar to Thursday’s session was about to commence to force someone into goal, an unlikely occurrence took place: a person under the age of 50 walking down the street in Burton. Lee quickly went into draft mode, and within thirty seconds, Calgary’s Mike de Boer was enticed into the black Canucks sweater and Road Warrior pads and protector (much like Jerod Jacobsen so many years ago). Teams were drawn along clothing lines, with the White Shirts (Jesse, Seamus, Graeme, K.J. and Nathan Wiebe) taking on the Colours (Ben, Lee, Brad, Terryn and Mike). The allowed the Colours a sub. Mike actually held up quite nicely with a save percentage any Burton goalie would be happy with. Game 1’s star was Nathan, potting a hat trick. Mitch also garnered two goals here. Tied for leading scorer, though, was Lee, who had more assists (four) than shots (three) in the first game, scoring on all of the Colours’ goals. The game went long at 35 minutes. We had to said goodbye to Mike after the first game as he had to leave, but Mike, if you’re reading this, you did a hell of a job for having no preparation and you are welcome back anytime you’re in town.

We were back to ten, and there was no reason to switch teams, but the Colours needed a goalie, and Brad stepped up to the plate, disappointed with his play in the first game. Again, having no experience in goal, he performed admirably. Nathan owned this game, with another four points. His most impressive goal was batting a Jesse Martin rebound baseball-style out of the air and past K.J. (who was money all evening, solidly between .830 and .860 all session). Play was even again but the Whites ended it slightly quicker (5-3) to win the series. Brad was done with goal and went back to skates, but the dreaded wheel toss was avoided when Jesse, who last played goal in bantam, volunteered his services. Little did we know what was in store.

The second series switched Jesse, now in goal, for Terryn. The dominant presence here on skates was Brad, determined to erase the first series. Boy, did he ever, as he put on an amazing defensive display full of pickpocketing, shot-blocking, and dextroous skating that frustrated his opponents to no end. He also picked up six points in the final series, and has already established himself as one of, if not the, best pure defencemen BUSH has ever seen. But Series 2 belonged ultimately to Jesse, who stopped the first eleven shots he faced in Burton Hockey. Not bad, we thought. Seamus erupted in Game 3 with three points and a huge volley of shots, but Jesse was able to turn all but one away. Meanwhile at the other end, Lee, Mitch and Brad were developing quite a rapport, combining on three goals to lead their team to victory 5-2. It was only at the end of the game that the gang realized what Jesse’s save percentage was during that game.

With daylight nearly gone, the crew squeezed one more game out under near-impossible conditions; your humble statistician was now keeping stats under a car light. Surely these conditions would kill any goalie’s save percentage. Instead, Jesse kept up the exact same pace. Seamus, Nathan and Terryn formed a three-pronged attack that included a mix of blistering shots from centre (didn’t work) and close-in rebounds where no goalie should be able to see the puck (worked once). K.J., watching from the other end, was yelling in amazement as the rookie turned away shot after shot in now total darkness. At the other end, in addition to Brad’s stifling defence and Lee’s speed, Ben had awoken and was unleashing a torrent of slapshots; the combination was too much for K.J. and Team Jesse won 5-3. It was the best goaltending performance of the year, and a night for the ages from a man who didn’t even expect to play goal that night.

The unexpected turn in net produced pure gold for Jesse, as he made an unbelievable debut of .923, stopping 60 of 65 shots en route to the second-best save percentage of all time in a single session and setting a new mark for rookies in the process, erasing one of Burton’s oldest records (Robert Rogers’ .917 in May 2002). Not to be completely overshadowed, K.J. was a stellar second star in goal with .833 and 85 saves. Mike put in a yeoman’s effort with .815 in his only game. In a day of outstanding goaltending, Brad’s .783 was still in line with a typical goaltending session. Offensively, Lee took first with five goals and nine assists. Seamus unleashed his typical high volume of shots (44 in the four games) but still got most of his points from assists en route to 3G-8A. Nathan lead the first half of the session in scoring but was shut down by Jesse in the second series and finished with 5G-4A. Matching Nathan was Mitch, notching 4A-5G. Brad most likely would have got into the top three were it not for hig goaltending stint, scoring eight points in three games with six points in the final series. Mark today down as one of the few times Ben didn’t get a star.

Here are the game scores:
White Shirts (Jesse Seamus Graeme K.J. Nathan) def. Coloured Shirts (Ben Lee Brad Terryn, with Mike first game) 5-4 5-3
Jesse Brad Lee Mitch Ben def. Seamus K.J. Terryn Nathan Graeme 5-2 5-3

Season Stats: Lee becomes the first player in Burton history to score 400 points in a year. At this rate, 500 is guaranteed and 600 may be within reach. Ben crosses 300 points in his rookie year. Mitch is just one point behind Oliver for third in season scoring. Terryn needs 16 points to become the 14th player to score 100 points this year. Lee needs one goal for 200. Mitch passes Kyle for fifth in assists. K.J. needs six assists for 100. Lee passes the 1,000-shot mark. K.J. passes Shem for fifth in goaltending. Ben becomes the fifth player to play 100 games this year. K.J. passes Lorne for eighth in games played. K.J. moves into the top ten in games goaltended. He also ties Lorne and Bron for fifth in total star points. Lee moves above 3.00 PPG while Ben falls below it; giving Lee third place in that category. Lee passes Ben for second in APG is just fractionally behind Troy for first. Seamus has an even smaller gap between himself and Ben for third. Seamus pushes his shots-per-game average over 9.00. K.J. passes Shem for fourth in saves-per-game. Jesse’s .923 is, naturally, the top mark recorded in a session this season, and his PPS of 983 ranks fourth this year.

On the All-Time Front: Seamus needs 37 points to become the fifth player to score 1,000 points. Graeme is 16 points behind Laird for tenth all-time. Ben becomes the 16th player to score 300 points and is seven behind Joe Chwachka for 15th. Lee is 30 goals behind Lorne for first all-time. Seamus is five away from 500 goals. Graeme ties Joe for twelfth in goals. Seamus is five assist behind Stefan for fifth all-time. K.J. becomes the ninth player to score 300 assists. Mitch is eleven assists behind Kyle for twelfth all-time. K.J. passes Shem for tenth in saves. Lee becomes the fifth player in history to play 500 games. Graeme needs six games for 300, and Ben becomes the 24th player to reach the century mark. K.J. passes Brodie for 13th in games goaltended. Seamus is ten three-star points behind Oliver for fourth. Ben falls below 3.00 PPG and behind Dustin Marchischuk to fifth all-time in that category. As mentioned above, Jesse’s .923 ranks as the second-best goaltending session of all-time, and removes Robert Rogers’ May 2002 session as the greatest rookie performance of all-time (it also knocks Nathan Wiebe’s session last week from the top five). It also sets a new rookie best with a PPS of 983, besting Dominik Voser’s record set back in June. Lee becomes the first player to score 400 points in a single Burton season; Ben becomes the fourth player to score 300 points in a season. Lee needs one goal to become the first player with two 200-goal seasons. Mitch’s 166 goals are fourth-best in a season; Ben’s 152 goals are fifth. Lee records his second 1,000-shot season; he is the only person to do this. Mitch is 14 shots away from recording the third-highest shot total in a year. Lee plays his 19th consecutive session, Ben his 15th, Terryn his eighth, and Seamus his fifth.

SDF/GDF: Big upheaval again on the SDF, as for just the second time in his career, K.J. is on top, moving ahead of Pat while Ben falls to third. Lee moves ahead of Troy for fourth, and Seamus, Jesse and Joern all move up in the top ten. Andrew and Stefan are now below minimum and will fall off with this weekend’s session. Dom is removed from the GDF due to inactivity, and this produces an extremely tight battle on top, with five goaltenders fighting for top spot. Taylor assumes top spot for the first time ahead of K.J. and Shem (each one goal against short of first), Justin and Troy.

Don’t forget check out those Records and Honours on the Links page before you leave. The long-awaited BUSH SuperSession takes place Sunday. It starts at 1 pm and goes until dark. Anything can (and will) happen!