After a week-and-a-half of frustration, BUSH returned Friday with 2-on-2 action at ALHS@McCormack. Ben de Wit now on loan to VRH until April put a damper on the numbers, but Justin Gordon’s triumphant return from the coast got the crew back together again for a rare weekday afternoon session. Scheduled for 1:30 pm, the session didn’t get going until 2:30 due to urgent work business for Brad Gibson. It was just as well; 2-on-2 in the September heat of Burton is an exhausting exercise, and there was plenty of time for the guys to get tired. In the meantime, we have found to our great horror that the Burton General Store is no longer in operation as of this week after untold decades, now reduced to a mere post office lobby. Even the hallowed bulletin board has been removed. This leaves BUSH players with a 30-minute round trip to Fauquier for emergency sustenance (hell, a pay phone for that matter). For shame.

When all were finally settled in, Lee and Troy teamed up with Shem to face Kyle, Brad and Justin in a close-fought but schizophrenic series. Kyle was a house afire in Game 1, going 4-and-1 to give his crew the win. And he wasn’t even the star! Lee and Troy outshot their opponents 31-23, but could only penetrate David Government twice as he pulled out a set of amazing saves. Even Shem in the opposing net was enjoying the show he got to view. Still, he probably enjoyed Game 2 even more, as he played fantastic, and Lee and Troy’s volume of shots finally overwhelmed Justin; Team Shem winning 5-1. Naturally, the rubber match was the best of all, as the back-and-forth action went down to the wire before Lee skated around back and passed out to Troy who buried it for the win.

The teams were rearranged for Game 4 to match Troy with Kyle and Justin against Lee, Brad and Shem. Midway through the game, a shard from Kyle’s stick nailed Troy above the right eye and put a nice-sized dent in his head. It wasn’t very big (maybe 4 mm long), but it was deep and produced a fair amount of blood to match any Andrew W.K. album cover. And yet, Troy was back playing within 40 seconds. As the session wore on from this point, the play started getting a bit sloppy. Brad laboured from here, only managing two points in the last 2 ½ games (as Burton Hockey’s purest defenceman, all-offence 2-on-2 is a pretty big adjustment). Troy and Kyle broke the 3-3 tie open with two quick goals to end the game. Game 5 went even quicker, as Kyle and Troy notched five goals in twelve minutes to give Justin the donut and the series win.

Out for redemption, Shem backed Lee and Kyle to a quick 5-2 victory in Game 6. Lee pointed out in this game, putting him over 500 for the season, while Kyle was in on four goals and finished at 4.00 PPG. Troy got the 19 points he needed for 200. Once the game was over, the consensus was immediate: everyone was too tired to go on. Overall, a good session. The skaters got a bit sloppy with turnovers in the second half, but these four skaters and two goaltenders made for entertaining hockey.

In a session filled with great stand-on-head goaltending, Kyle still pulled off a magical 4.00 PPG with 18 goals in just six games along with six helpers and 77 shots to take the day at 24 points. Lee and Troy tied for second with identical tallies of 9G-10A; Lee outshooting Troy 68-59. Brad ensured everyone was over 2.00 PPG with an evenhanded six-and-six on 53 shots and solid defence in the first series.. It was back-and-forth in goal all day with both goalies surviving off-games to come out stellar. Justin notched his second shutout of the season and a .936 Game 1 en route to an outstanding .851 with 114 saves. Shem had a rocky Game 1 and 5 but was amazing otherwise with .821 on 101 saves.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Troy Shem def. Brad Kyle Justin 5-2 1-5 5-4
Troy Kyle Justin def. Lee Brad Shem 5-3 5-0
Kyle Lee Shem def. Justin Troy Brad 5-2

Season Stats: Lee reaches the magical 500-point mark on the season. Kyle is solidly in third at 344. Troy becomes the ninth player to score 200 points this season; Shem the 16th to score 100 as he passes Andrew Smart. Kyle passes Ben for second in goals; he needs two for 200. Troy passes Lorne for ninth in goals and needs seven for 100. Troy becomes the eighth player to score 100 assists and is one behind Mitch Detta for seventh. Kyle passes Mitch for third in shots-on-goal; Troy passes Pat for eighth. Justin passes Nathan Robson for fourth in save percentage. He also shoots from ninth to sixth in saves. Lee is five games played behind Oliver for the season lead, 173-168. Shem passes Ben and Mitch for fourth at 129, Kyle passes K.J. for eighth. Justin moves from tenth to seventh in games goaltended. He also becomes the fifth goalie this season with multiple shutouts. Troy ties Oliver for seventh in three-star points. Shem is ten goalie star points behind Bron for first with 115; Justin moves into a tie with Lyle for fourth at 60 and is five behind Lorne. Kyle is ten total star points behind Ben for second with 160. Lee passes Pat for fourth in shots-per-game. Kyle’s 77 shots on goal rank sixth for a single session this year, which is nuts considering only six games were played.

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 28 points for 1,500, and is now just 105 points behind Oliver for the all-time lead. Kyle passes Graeme for tenth and needs two points for 500. Troy becomes the 20th player in history with 200 points, and passes Ryan Disterheft to move into a tie with Pat Elischer for 18th. Lee becomes the second player ever to score 800 goals and is just six behind Lorne for the all-time lead. Kyle passes Joern for ninth in goals; he needs 19 for 300. Troy becomes the 21st player to score 100 goals. Justin becomes the seventh player to score 400 assists. Troy passes Simon for 16th in assists. Shem is two saves behind Seamus for ninth all-time. Lee is one game played behind Joern for fourth all-time. Justin is two games behind Laird for sixth. Shem passes Ben and enters the top 20 in games played. Troy needs eleven games for 100. Justin becomes the fifth goalie with ten career shutouts. Kyle is rapidly closing in on Ben for fifth in all-time PPG. Troy passes Dallas and Dustin Marchischuk for fourth in APG. Kyle is now just marginally behind Ben for second in shots-per-game. Lee and Kyle have four straight 15-pointers, Troy has three. Kyle becomes the seventh player with 15 ten-goal sessions. He ties Lee for fourth in 15-goal sessions with seven. Lee has back-to-back ten-assisters. Justin records his eleventh 80-saver, Shem his tenth. Shem has six 80-savers in a row; Justin three. Justin moves into fifth in career 90-savers with ten. Shem has a record-tying five in a row; Justin three. Justin ties Joern and Lorne for fourth in 100-savers with seven; Shem is one behind. Justin has three 100-savers in a row. Justin has back-to-back 110-savers. Lee plays his 23rd consecutive session. Lee becomes the first player to score 500 points in a single season. Kyle’s 344 points is the fourth-highest season total ever, as are his 198 goals and 905 shots-on-goal. His 146 assists rank sixth. Shem’s 1,288 saves rank second-highest in a single season ever; his 75 games goaltended rank third. Kyle’s 145 three-star points are the fifth-highest total ever. Shem is ten points away from tying the goalie star point record in a single year at 125.

SDF/GDF: The rankings won’t be finalised until tomorrow’s VRH session is played.

Until next time, don’t forget to check out the Records and Honours page in the Links section for the plethora of statistical goodies inside. VRH debuts at Queen Elizabeth Park tomorrow with Ben de Wit onboard for the first time; check back then!