Due to the initial appearance of a small session, we finally took the game back to Ambleside once again. However, we should have known, if recent sessions are any indication, that we'd end up with at least a few unexpected players (including 2 new players: Ondrej & Chung), which resulted in an over abundance of players for the small rink, at least for the later portion of the session. For a few games each team actually had enough players for two full lines, which naturally diluted playing time and individual stats considerably. That being said, with the 3-minute rule in place things went rather smoothly, and the strategic significance of line matching added an interesting element.

As is becoming customary whenever he plays, Pat dominated once again with his team winning every game except one. The end of the session saw a few very lopsided games, but an extended 5 game series in the middle of the session produced some very close, intensely fought games. As is almost always the case with Dom and Bron, the goaltending was very solid with numerous highlight reel saves from both goalies. The fact that there were some incredibly nice offensive plays (many of them engineered by Pat) may create the false impression, statistically speaking, that the goaltending was sub-par.

Well, this time it was two players running ahead of everyone on the scoresheet. Once again, Pat dominated the day, wiping away K.J. O’Connor’s five-week old assist record with 23. He added 13 goals for a massive 36 points on 57 shots in ten games. The only other player remotely close to him was Lorne, with 15G-10A. No one else was in the ball park; you have to go down to eleven points to find a four-way tie for third between Eric, Jordan, Ryan, and the debuting Darrel. Eric notched ten goals but managed just one assist. In goal, Dom recovered nicely after some off-sessions, stopping a huge 132 shots en route to .805, well ahead of Bron at .765 despite 127 saves.

Here are the game scores:
Pat Lorne Stefan Jordan Joern Bron def. Bernie Oliver Darrel Eric Ryan Dom 5-2
Darrel Pat Eric Ryan Bernie Bron def. Lorne Stefan Jordan Oliver Dom Joern 5-4 2-5 5-2
Darrel Pat Eric Ryan Bernie Bron def. Lorne Stefan Jordan Oliver Dom Joern Andrej 5-4 5-3
Ryan Pat Darrel Stefan Lorne Bernie Dom def. Eric Andrej Chung Oliver Joern Jordan Bron 5-1 5-1
Ryan Pat Lorne Oliver Chung Dom def. Andrej Darrel Eric Stefan Jordan Bernie Bron 5-2 5-1

Season Stats: Stefan passes Mitch Detta for fifth in season points and needs 22 for 300. Pat is twelve behind K.J. for seventh. Lorne becomes the tenth player to score 200 points this year, and passes Troy for ninth. Pat passes K.J. for fifth in goals with Stefan now two behind K.J. for sixth. Pat passes Lorne for ninth in assists and is five behind Mitch; both pat and Lorne pass the 100-assist mark. Lorne falls behind tony into third in shooting percentage. Jordan needs eight more shots on goal to be eligible for the season shooting percentage lead. Even if he didn’t score on any of them; he’d have the lead by over 3.3 percentage points. Lorne ties Ben for fourth in games played, Stefan ties Shem for sixth, and Bron is one behind Mitch for eighth. Dom jumps to sixth in games goaltended. Pat passes Stefan for fourth in three-star points. Bron ties K.J. for fifth in total star points. Pat passes Seamus and Ben for third in APG but falls to seventh in shots-per-game behind Andrew Smart and K.J. Pat’s 36 points rank fourth-best in sessions this year. His record-setting 23 assists naturally set the session standard for this year.

On the All-Time Front: Oliver needs seven points to becomes the first player to score 1,600. Lorne needs 14 for 1,400. Stefan needs nine for 1,100. Bernie is eight points behind Seamus for fifth. Pat jumps from 20th to 17th all-time; Ryan passes Troy for 18th. Stefan becomes the fourth player to score 600 goals. Joern is twelve goals behind Kyle for ninth. Oliver is 30 assists away from an unfathomable 1,000. Lorne is twelve assists behind Bernie for third. Stefan needs nine assists for 500. Ryan passes Simon for 17th in assists. Pat becomes the 20th player to score 100 assists and is five behind Ryan. Stefan becomes the fourth player to shoot 3,000 times. Pat becomes the 20th player to make 500 shots. Pat falls below 30% shooting for the first time (again, Jordan at 35.87% would dominate this category were he eligible for it yet). Bron passes Joern for fourth in saves and becomes the fourth goalie to make 3,000 saves. Dom moves to twelfth in saves. Lorne needs two games to become the third player to play 600. Joern passes Lee for fourth in games played. Bron becomes the fifth goalie to goaltend 200 games. Bron is ten goalie star pints behind Laird for second all-time. Pat falls behind Robert to second in GPG and plummets from fifth to tenth in shots-per-game, but rockets from sixth to first in APG. Lorne is two 15-pointers behind Lee for first all-time (56-54). Pat has nine in a row (third-longest streak ever). Lorne ties Lee for the all-time lead in 20-pointers with 26. Pat extends his record 20-pointer streak to seven; Lorne has two in a row. Pat is tied for fifth in 25-pointers with six, and passes Robert Rogers for the most consecutive 25-pointers with five (Robert’s streak is still active should he choose to play again). Pat becomes the first player to score four 30-pointers. Eric records his first career ten-goal session. Pat has seven in a row, the third-longest streak ever. Lorne has back-to-back 15-goal sessions. Lorne ties Stefan for third in ten-assisters with 15; Pat has three in a row. Bron ties Chris Jackins for third in 80-savers with 21 and in 120-savers with 5. Dom has five 80-savers in a row. Bron is one 90-saver behind Nathan for first all-time (18-17), two behind him in 100-savers (16-14), one behind him in 110-savers (11-10). Dom becomes the sixth goalie with multiple 130-savers. Oliver plays his records 38th consecutive session; Bernie his 18th; Lorne his ninth; Jordan his sixth; Eric, Dom and Ryan their fifth. Ben’s streak ends at 20, Tony’s at five. Pat’s 36 points are tied for the fifth-highest scoring session ever, and his 23 assists easily top the all-time chart (in fact, the top five assist-producing sessions ever have all come since June). Oliver has played 196 games this season, just five away from the all-time season record. Bron sets a new record for goalie star points in a season with 130, passing Nathan’s 125 in 2006.

SDF/GDF: Even with K.J.’s last off session dropping off, Pat’s win today keeps him on top for a sixth straight ranking. K.J. will begin falling next ranking. Pat’s wins was so crushing that the rating of every other player not debuting today went down except Bernie. A lot of red ink on the board for the first ever 40-player (!!!) ranking. Golden Joe remains on top of the GDF for a third straight week. Dom moves up from ninth to sixth.

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.