Much to the joy of the entire valley populace, Seamus O’Connor is back for the rest of the season. Hockey, thus, was a no-brainer today, as the BUSH crew headed down to a store-less Burton, BC for a muggy afternoon session. Not only was it sunny, there was just enough moisture in the air to ensure that all would be wet and tired after, oh, the first minute. The gang arrived to find that not only had one of the temporary boards installed around the rink been removed, but another one had been thrown on the ground on top of, inexplicably, the Burton May Days billboard that formerly graced the entrance to the village. Why it was there, we’ll never know. But someone had also left a long piece of twine hanging out of the garbage, and so we were able not only to reattach the misplaced board, but add the May Days sign to the boards as well. So, boardwise, we at least broke even.

With Nathan and Seamus back in the fold, it proved to be a great 2-on-2 session. The first series pitted Nathan, Seamus and Kyle against Justin, Troy and Lee. Justin was forced to stand on his head as Seamus and Kyle, the two highest-volume shooters in the league, lived up to their billing. Lee and Troy were dealing with old sticks with small blades and had a hard time keeping the ball down, playing right into Nathan’s hands. Still, they hung in, and Game 1 went down to the wire before Team Nathan potted the winner in a 57-shot game. Game 2 saw Lee and Troy start off slow and let Team Nathan get up to a 4-1 lead before finding their reserve tanks and storming back with two quick goals. It was about a goal too late, however, as Team Nathan scored the next goal and won the series.

Series 2 saw a battle between shooting preferences as the lefties (Justin, Seamus and Troy) challenges the righties (Nathan, Kyle and Lee) for dexterity supremacy. Some jovial casual ethnic humour directed at Kyle prompted a five-goal demolition of the opposition as Grenier potted all of his team’s goals (including a classic goalie-crash-and-one-hand-wrap) in an otherwise closely fought 5-3 game. As he skated off after sinking the winner, he yelled in triumph, ‘French people rule!’ Team Left came right back immediately, catching Lee on an off-game. Seamus and Troy each notched four points en route to a 5-2 rout. Justin’s crazy stick save was the highlight of the day. Lyle Detta arrived as a spectator in Game 4 and grabbed hold of the camera to take about 80% of the pictures you see below. Lee wanted revenge not just for his team, but for himself, and he got it to win Game 5 and the second series, as he and Kyle BOTH pointed out in a rather quick 5-3 win. Another fun but exhausting day in the heat. The McCormack concession hall saw much use of its water tap today.

Kyle continues his high-volume scoring tear, as he notched 13G-6A on 54 shots to lead the day. The highest shot volume went to Seamus, with 62 shots on net. He (10G-7A) tied Troy (11G-6A) for second. Lee had a bad Game 4 and that was enough to have him finish fourth. The goalies, faced with high speed and high shot volumes, performed admirably. In fact, their save percentages were nearly identical today. Nathan posted .8044 and 74 saves while Justin posted .8036 and 90 saves. Both goalies were over .830 until the last two games.

Here are the game scores:
Nathan Seamus Kyle def. Justin Troy Lee 5-4 5-3
Right (Nathan Kyle Lee) def. Left (Justin Seamus Troy) 5-3 2-5 5-3

Season Stats: First place in the scoring race might be a foregone conclusion (as much as you can have those in Burton), but second is very much up for grabs, as Kyle closes to within 22 points of Ben, 385-363. Troy is one point behind Pat for eighth, and Seamus enters the top 20, needing 19 for 100. Kyle might have a shot for most goals; he narrows the gap to lee down to 252-211. Troy becomes the ninth player this year to score 100. He passes Mitch for seventh in assists. Justin is 21 saves behind Lyle for fifth. Lee is six games behind Oliver for the games-played lead. Justin passes Joe for sixth in games goaltended and Nathan enters the top ten. Troy passes Oliver for seventh in three-star points. Justin ties Lorne for third in goalie star points; Nathan moves to seventh. Troy passes Lee and ties K.J. for third in PPG. Seamus is averaging nearly 10.00 shots-per-game.

On the All-Time Front: For the first time since the first season of Burton Hockey, Lee is within 100 points of Oliver; this time, though, the all-time scoring lead is at stake. Lee needs 15 points for 1,500. Seamus is just 20 points away from becoming the fifth player to score 1,000 points; he is 19 points ahead of Bernie. Kyle becomes the tenth player to score 500 points. Troy passes Simon for 17th all-time. Lee is just five goals behind Lorne for the all-time lead, 813-808. Seamus becomes the fifth player to score 500 goals. Kyle needs six goals for 300. Troy enters the top 20 in goals. Seamus is eight assists behind Stefan for fifth. Lee needs 109 shots on goal for 4,000. Kyle passes Mitch for tenth in shots. Lee re-passes Joern for fifth in games played. Justin passes Laird for sixth. Seamus is five games behind Stefan for eighth. Nathan is eight games behind Chris for 12th. Troy needs six games for 100. Seamus is ten three-star points behind Oliver for fourth. Troy falls marginally behind Dustin Marchischuk for fourth in APG. Kyle dangerously close to 8.00 shots per game. Seamus is one 15-pointer behind Stefan for fourth at 32. Troy records his tenth. Kyle has five in a row, Troy four. Lee’s 15-pointer streak ends at four. Seamus passes Justin for fifth in ten-goal sessions with 23. Lee’s ten-assister ends at two. Justin posts his fourth-straight 80- and 90-savers. He also passes Lyle for fifth in 90-savers with eleven. His 100-saver streak ends at three, and his 110-save streak ends at two, as does Lyle’s 80-saver streak. Lee plays his 24th consecutive session, which is tied for the fifth-longest streak ever (Stefan’s steak from October 2006 to May 2009). Kyle and Troy have their first-ever streaks of five consecutive sessions played. Lee becomes the first player to score 250 goals in a season; Kyle the third to score 200. Kyle has the fifth-highest assist total in a season.

SDF/GDF: You’d be hard-pressed to find a session that produced as little movement on the SDF as this week. Pat stays on top, and Troy marginally falls behind Lorne for seventh. The GDF, on the other hand, sees a big change as Justin’s session drops him to second behind the new leader, for the first time ever, Golden Joe Leonard! Nathan moves up from eleventh to seventh.

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 Saturday, BUSH Sunday!