As autumn in the West Kootenay tends not to last very long, and the end of Daylight Savings Time eats another hour of daylight, chances are few and far between to get another BUSH session in this season before the snow falls. With the sky crisp but nothing falling from it except leaves, Nathan saw the short window of opportunity and organised on short notice an enjoyable little session; the coldest session in Burton history at a brisk 4°C. Sure enough, the rink at McCormack was covered in leaves with no hope of getting all of them off without the aid of a high-powered leaf blower. It was decided to just play through it; leaves are flat, anyway.

Nathan promised us new blood, and it came in the form of Burton’s own Alan Orr (no relation), meaning half the field today would be surnamed Orr. Frighteningly, he is only the third Burtonian to actually skate in Burton this year (Lyle and Mitch Detta being the two). The Orr brothers teamed up with Shem in goal against Kyle and Nathan backed by Alan. Game 1 was not kind to the goalies; this was exemplified by a shot from Lee along the ground from centre that deflected off Graeme’s stick and flew over Alan’s head into the net. The brothers Orr doubled the shot total of Kyle and Nathan but Alan kept it close. Eventually, the brothers won 5-3 but neither goalie was particularly great (Alan at .735 versus Shem at .667). Boy, did that change quickly.

Game 2 was one no one will forget (especially Lee). The goalies came to play in this one. Alan began with a brilliant five-save sequence followed by a rink-long pass to Kyle, who thought he had a wide-open right side before Shem unleashed a glove from nowhere to rob him in a sick, sick fashion. Shem was back in the .850s for this game, but the story was Alan just stoning the Orrs on nearly every occasion. He faced 55 shots this game, 30 from Lee and 25 from Graeme. Eventually, they did overwhelm him with sheer volume, but the huge amount of missed chances stuck in Lee’s craw, especially on breakaways. All five Orr Brother goals came on set passes. Kyle had his chances at the other end as well; Shem’s blocker saved the day for his team. To make it even closer, Nathan found his stick in the second half of the game and started making inroads on Shem as well. As luck would have it, with all of the repeated stoning by Alan on Lee from close in, it was a fluke dump in from the opposing end of the rink that bounced along the pavement and hopped in past Alan that won the brothers the game. He may have lost the game, but Alan Orr was truly the star of Game 2, going 50 for 55. The Orr Brothers outshot Kyle and Nathan 74-38 in the series, and Lee pointed out at 6-and-4.

It was decided to put a team together consisting entirely of Orrs for the second series. Trading goalies for the second series initially didn’t pan out thanks to some fluke events but ultimately led to good hockey. But first, the fluke that was Game 3; an event that maybe lasted seven minutes. It did not take long for Kyle and Nathan to bring Alan back to Earth, as their first four shots went past him. Shem was near perfect, and the result was a 5-1 whitewash; Kyle and Nathan scoring on five of seven shots.

The Orrs came back with a vengeance in Game 4, peppering Shem with close-range shots, but ShemWow! Was in his groove and could not be rattled. The game went back-and-forth into the early autumn darkness, Shem devouring shots like a vampire in the twilight (that phrase should up the Google search hits, shaved asian teen jon and kate twitter). Alan steadied himself and came right back from his Game 3 loss, and a hard-fought battle took place. One of Shem’s many assists on the day came on a fantastic play and one that will be one of the better-remembered highlights in Burton Hockey. Pokechecking the ball over Lee’s stick on another close-in chance, Shem set up Kyle on a lightning-quick breakaway that Kyle put past Alan as Grenier’s blown front wheel sent him flipping in the air completely over Alan into the net along with the ball (and a giant smile on his face as he landed). One more goal ended the game 5-3 for Shem, Kyle and Nathan. A wonderful game to end the session, and a wonderful session to hopefully-not-but-probably end the 2009 season for Burton United Socialist Hockey.

Despite the best efforts of Lee and Graeme to get one past Shem in the last ten minutes, Lee did not get that point he needed to get to 15, and Kyle’s series-winner in Game 5 from Nathan was the point he needed to take the day, scoring 12 goals and 3 assists on 48 shots. Lee posted a ridiculous 72 shots on net, but the lightning-quick shellacking in Game 3 cost him the day by one point, finishing at 8G-6A. Graeme worked well with his older brother all day and posted 6G-5A for third on 44 shots. Nathan was held to two points in the first series but exploded in the second with six, finishing 4-and-4. The confidence on wheels is coming session by session. Shem’s amazing second half today showed why he is BUSH’s go-to goalie; he stopped 71 of 81 en route to a career-best .877. Plus, he led the session in assists! Alan’s otherwise brilliant day was hampered a bit by the flukey Game 3, but he performed very well in his Burton debut with 81 saves in the four games and .802 overall.

Here are the game scores:
Orr Brothers (Lee Graeme Shem) def. Kyle Nathan Alan 5-3 5-3
Kyle Nathan Shem def. All-Orr (Lee Graeme Alan) 5-1 5-3

Season Stats: Unless BUSH can continue playing through cold weather, it appears Lee will finish twelve points short of an unfathomable 600 points at 588. Kyle passes Ben and now needs three for 400. Graeme needs nine for 100. Lee needs eight goals and four assists for 300 each. Kyle passes Ben for second in shots. Lee needs one game played for 200. Kyle is one game behind Stefan for eighth. Lee goes over 300 three-star and total star points as Kyle passes Ben for second in three-star points. Shem passes Bron for the lead in goalie star points. Lee passes Troy for fourth in GPG. Lee goes over the 8.00 shots-per-game mark as Kyle closes in on 9.00. Shem’s .877 is a new career high and the sixth-highest session this year.

On the All-Time Front: Lee makes history by deposing Lorne as Burton’s all-time goal leader after nine-and-a-half seasons on top (848-843). Lee is 72 points behind Oliver for the all-time scoring lead. Graeme becomes the eleventh player to score 500 points. Graeme is eight goals behind Mitchell for eleventh, and one assist behind Laird for tenth. Nathan needs eight assists for 100; Shem ten. Kyle passes Joern for ninth in all-time shots. Kyle needs ten games for 200, and Shem passes Lyle for 19th. Shem needs nine games goaltended for 100. Shem ties Lyle for sixth all-time in goalie star points. Kyle is 15 points away from entering the top ten in all-time total star points. Kyle passes Dallas to take the all-time lead in shots-per-game. Kyle has seven 15-pointers and four ten-goal sessions in a row. Lee’s 15-pointer streak ends at three. Shem’s streak of 80-savers ends at eight, the second-longest streak ever. Alan breaks 80 in his first session. Shem’s record streak of 90-savers ends at seven. His 100-saver streak ends at three. Lee plays his 28th consecutive session. Kyle’s 397 points this year is the second-highest scoring season ever. His 236 goals and 1,087 shots on goal also rank second for an entire season. Lee’s 199 games played rank third for an entire season. Lee sets a new season record for three-star points and total star points with 305, the first player ever to go over 300 in a year. Kyle’s 190 three-star points rank third-best ever; his 205 total star points are fourth. Shem sets a new record for goalie star points in a year with 160.

SDF/GDF: Pat’s on top of the SDF for a ninth consecutive time. Lee marginally falls behind Troy to fourth; the absent Nathan Wiebe falls from the top ten (Terryn will do the same next session). Over on the GDF, Joe spends what will likely be his last week on top of the GDF. Shem moves into second and is poised to take the lead in the next ranking.

With temperature falling, both leagues are rushing to get as many games in as possible. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours page in the Links section.