Lee returned to organising duty, but once again it was Nathan Robson who saved the day for BUSH and kept the season pushing into November. When Graeme and Frankie found themselves ‘unable to play’ after the previous night’s activity (despite Troy being able to play having participated in the same activity- guess which two guys get Bitch Awards?), Shem out of town, and a plethora or other names having fallen through, Nathan went into the extended family reserve and called up his girlfriend Megan’s younger brother, Luke Williams (not to be confused with this Luke Williams. Once again, Nathan came up big with a huge save in the clutch. We also welcomed back two players we’d been missing the past few weeks and we happy to have back, Mitchell and Brad. The weather started out warmer than the past few days (7°C) but the air was saturated and a few drops were felt in the beginning of the session. Later, it would cool to 5°C as the valley was enveloped in cloud.

Game 1 belonged to Seamus. Teamed with Mitch and Brad and backed by Troy, Seamus scored on his first three shots on goal, and in fact would have all five goals as Team Troy whitewashed the opposition 5-1. Seamus then went on to score the first two goals in the next game as well. Lee, Kyle and Nathan made it a bit closer in Game 2 but Troy was on fire this series, posting .870 for the two games.

Trading Nathan for Brad enabled the crew to find a bit more balance for the second series. Game 3 was the most hard-fought frame of the afternoon, going down to the wire as Lee, Kyle and Brad just eked out a victory. Game 4 would be easier for them, as they won 5-2 on a beautiful no-look backhand from Brad that went top shelf.

The next attempt at engineering team failed utterly, as Troy, Nathan, Lee and Seamus demolished Team Luke in nine minutes, 5-1. Switching the goalies appeared to work for Game 5, especially as Troy fell off in this game. He stopped five of ten, and Luke stopped four of eight, as a wacky 5-4 game took only six minutes to play. The most ignominious moment went Troy chest-saved a Leeroy slapper, gathered up the ball, and dropped it in his own net. Troy would recover but Luke would not. Two more quick victories for Kyle, Brad, Mitch and Troy put an end to the session.

Despite losing five of eight games, Lee was a house afire from Game 3 onward, scoring 15 goals on 49 shots and adding 11 helpers to take the day. Seamus got off to a massive start but got hampered by only notching two points in the last two games. He finished 13-and-11 for second. Kyle only had two points after the first series, but recovered with 19 in the last six to finish third at 9-and-12. Mitch showed off his sniping hands with 12G, and Brad and Nathan were rock solid on defence. Troy had an up-and-down day in net but still came out on the bright side at .813 plus six assists. Luke put in a yeoman’s effort filling in on such short notice and everyone was most appreciative; he finished at .629.

Here are the game scores:
Mitch Brad Seamus Troy def. Lee Luke Kyle Nathan 5-1 5-2
Lee Luke Kyle Brad def. Mitch Nathan Seamus Troy 5-4 5-2
Troy Nathan Lee Seamus def. Kyle Brad Mitch Luke 5-1
Kyle Brad Mitch Troy def. Lee Seamus Nathan Luke 5-4 5-1 5-2

Season Stats: Mitchell’s 19 points today are enough to leapfrog him over Pat and Stefan into fifth; seven points away from 300. Troy’s six assists in goal leave him three points behind K.J. for eighth (K.J., by the way, is almost ready to return, which is insane). Seamus leapfrogs a plethora of people and is all the way up to 14th. Brad jumps from 25th to 22nd in season scoring. Kyle passes 250 goals on the year; he is also nine assists behind Ben for third. Troy is four assists behind Stefan for fifth. Mitch passes Pat for eighth in assists and is seven behind K.J. for seventh. Brad passes Barlow for 21st. Troy falls behind Brandon to second place in save percentage. Lee passes Oliver for the lead in games played at 214. Kyle jumps past Bron, Ben and Lorne to fifth in games played; Mitch passes Stefan for ninth. Troy becomes the 14th player to play 100 games this year. Troy passes Lorne for fifth in total star points.

On the All-Time Front: Lee becomes the second player in history to score 1,600 points; he is 28 behind Oliver for the all-time lead. Seamus is 50 points behind Stefan for fourth. Kyle needs nine points to become the tenth member of the 600-point club. Troy needs 19 for 300. Nathan passes Andrew George for 27th. Lee needs 27 goals for 900. Seamus becomes the fifth player to score 500 assists. Kyle is 20 assists behind Laird for eleventh. Nathan scores his 100th assist and passes Joe Chwachka for 20th. Seamus needs one shot on goal for 2,500 all-time. Troy amasses enough shots against to become eligible for the all-time goaltending race and debuts second behind K.J. Seamus passes Laird and Justin for seventh in games played and is just one game behind Stefan in sixth. Nathan needs seven games to become the twelfth player to play 300. Mitch moves to two games behind Bron for 14th. Kyle passes 200 games played. Lee reaches 900 three-star and total star points. Seamus passes 500 three-star points and is five behind Oliver for fourth. Kyle ties Joern for tenth in total star points at 300. Brad passes Lee for eighth in APG. Kyle has nine straight 15-pointers; Seamus four. Seamus is one 20-pointer behind Stefan for third all-time at 20; Kyle is one behind Oliver for fifth at 15. Lee ties Lorne for the all-time lead in 25-pointers with 13. Lee is one ten-goal session behind Lorne for the all-time (43-42); Seamus passes K.J. for fourth. Kyle’s streak ends at five. Lee passes K.J. for second in 15-goal sessions with nine. Seamus has back-to-back ten assisters, as does Brad. Troy has his third-straight .810+ session. Lee becomes the third player ever to play 30 consecutive sessions; he needs one to tie Bernie’s 2003-04 streak. Nathan plays his sixth straight session. Kyle has the fourth-highest single-season assist total ever at 182. Mitch has the fifth-highest shot total at 863. Lee sets a new record for games played in a season with 214.

SDF/GDF: Major upheaval on the SDF! By one of the smallest margins in history, Troy narrowly takes over the top spot with Kyle just barely behind him. Put it this way: if Kyle had scored one more point today, he would be on top. Long-time number-one Pat falls to third, and the margin between he, Lee and Seamus is just as narrow as the one between Troy and Kyle. Lorne is right there in sixth, too, and Tony jumps from seventh to tenth. Six players fell off this time, with only Mitch rejoining the ranking. Little change on the GDF with Shem on top for a second straight time and fourth overall.

Lee’s off to Hawaii, but Nathan’s been the one doing the organising recently. Will the weather hold out for BUSH and allow them to have more games? Will Graeme be awake? Until next time, check out the Records and Honours page in the Links section, replete with new links to scoring streak and goaltending streak statistics.