A healthy amount of sun was had today despite the crisp, cool 3°C temperature, another record low temperature for Burton Hockey. This was the third session in five days based around a core of Lee, Nathan, Seamus, Graeme and Justin. With Shem back from Sun Peaks, the stage was set for one of the more spectacular goaltending sessions of 2009, and a goaltending performance this humble statistician puts in his top five ever.

The gang was not only invigorated by the weather but by their wardrobe. Entering the pipes for the first in months, Seamus donned the green, yellow and white of the O’Toole’s Roadhouse Restaurant Racers (the club team of his parents’ old restaurant in Edmonton). David Government donned his trusty home Vancouver Luongo #1. Shem went retro, opting for one of the more esoteric choices one could make: a vintage black Esa Tikkanen Vancouver #10 circa 1996. And then there was Nathan. Class all the way, his outfit of choice? A black tuxedo t-shirt.

Putting Lee and Shem (Horr) together with Seamus against Graeme, Nathan (Rorr) and Justin looked pretty good on paper. Indeed, goaltending-wise, it was pretty even; Justin was at .863 compared to Seamus’ .861. The shots, however, were 28-16 for the Horrs, led by Shem’s 21 shots (no one else had more than nine). Lee and Shem both pointed out as the Horrs won 5-2. Game 2 was much more even as Graeme and Nathan found their game and started putting big points on the board. Of course, that didn’t prevent the two of them from colliding into each other on a 2-on-0, falling to the pavement on their backs and taking themselves both out of the play, setting up a Lee breakaway. Nathan’s leg and elbow (pic below) were quite nicely covered in blood. In the cold air, the blood congealed a formed a sort of second skin on Nate’s leg. There were long stretches where the goalies just could not be beaten except by fluke goals, most notably 1) Seamus stoning Nathan only to drop the ball into the net, and 2) Shem’s slapshot that was saved by Justin, sending the rebound flying straight up only to be tomahawked out of the air by Lee over Justin’s shoulder (declared no goal due to a high stick). Lee and Shem won a hard-fought 5-4 game; both pointing out again. This marked the first time in Burton history two teammates pointed out an entire series.

Graeme’s last goal on Seamus in Game set up one of the more magnificent stretches of goaltending ever, as he stopped the next 56 shots on goal. He backed Lee and Nathan to a 14-shot 5-0 shutout in Game 3. It’s not as if Justin was bad. Seamus was just unstoppable. (Oh, and did I mention Lee pointed out AGAIN?) Seamus carried that heat into Game 4 where he teamed with Shem and Graeme against Lee, Nathan, and Justin. Seamus just killed Lee and Nathan for 20 minutes, stopping another 33 shots in a row before Nathan solved him. It was now getting dark; with the sky continuing to clear, the shining moon helped keep things going a little longer. Justin was on fire in this game as well as Game 4 was a 40-minute epic. A running theme through the session was both goalies trying to get shots on goal; Seamus won that battle 4-2. One of the funnier fluke goals in a while happened when Graeme cleared the ball from the corner only the beat Justin through the side of the net. In the dark, it came down to the long distance shots the goalies couldn’t see; a Shem shot from the opposing blue line would win the game for his team 5-3. Lee got in on all three of his team’s goal but was denied the opportunity to point out.

At some points in the cold air, there was so much steam rising off the players it seemed like we were at the hot springs. My stats binder (and eventually my camera) were both covered in condensation from all of the players sitting around them on the bench. Even with Lee’s 4.5 PPG, the story here was goaltending. Two legends of the game duelling head-to-head, brilliantly facing the highest average total shot volume Burton’s ever seen. Seamus in particular just kept getting better and better as the session wore on.

Seamus, Seamus, Seamus! It was a dissection today on his end, as he meticulously slashed his way through opposing shooters and only got better as the day went on, stopping 99 shots in the four games with a shutout to finish up at an amazing .917 (tied for the fifth-highest save percentage ever in a session). This is not to take away from Justin at all. Despite being on the losing end of all four games today, it was his play that kept his teams going all day. He stopped 115 shots (28.75 saves per game!) and finished at an excellent .852, continuing his record run of .800+ sessions and further cementing his claim as 2009’s goaltender of the year. Almost overshadowed by the goaltending was Lee’s offensive explosion. He contributed to every goal his teams scored, pointed out the first three games and finished with 10G-8A on an astounding 89 shots. 89 shots in four games, by the way, is a new high in per-game shooting excess. Shem picked up his first ever three-star points today, pointing out in the first two games en route to 5G-9A on 57 shots. Nathan picks up third on 7-5-12-48. Graeme got the short end of the stick today after winning Tuesday; he finished 7-3-10-43.

Here are the game scores:
Horrs (Lee Shem Seamus) def. Rorrs (Graeme Nathan Justin) 5-2 5-4
Seamus Lee Nathan def. Justin Graeme Shem 5-0
Shem Graeme Seamus def. Lee Justin Nathan 5-3

Did someone say photo slideshow?

Season Stats: Lee is just one point away from the magical 700-point mark this year. Seamus needs ten points for 200. Graeme jumps up to 13th ahead of Tony and Bernie. Shem moves to 16th and Nathan enters the top 20. Shem passes Lorne to enter the top ten in assists. Nathan needs 12 assists for 100. Lee needs 42 shots for 2,000! Seamus moves into first place in the goaltending race at .851, while Justin jumps into .836. Justin passes Lyle for third in saves. Nathan needs ten games for 100. Seamus records his second shutout of the year. Shem joins lee and Kyle in the 200 total star point club. Lee passes K.J. and Troy to move into third place in PPG, and goes over 3.00 PPG. Lee also passes Troy for fourth in GPG. Seamus debuts in first place in saves-per-game with 21.09; Justin lies second. Lee’s 89 shots on goal is the fifth-highest total of the year, astounding when you consider the session was only four games long and the four totals above it were in the 12-game BUSH SuperSession. Seamus’ .917 is the third-highest save percentage this year; his PPS of 1016 is fourth.

On the All-Time Front: Seamus’ two assists move him to within two points of fourth-place Stefan in the all-time scoring race. Graeme needs 17 points for 600. Nathan passes Tony Hajdu for 22nd, and Shem enters the top 25. Lee becomes the first player in history to score 900 goals. Graeme is three goals behind Joern for tenth. Nathan is three assists behind Robert for sixteenth in assists, and Shem enters the top 20. Lee passes 4,500 shots. Graeme reaches 1,500 shots and passes Joern for tenth. Lee is three games played behind Lorne for third all-time, and needs two more than that for 600. Seamus needs ten games for 500. Shem passes Simon for 17th. Seamus records his fifth career shutout. Graeme ties Joern for eleventh in three-star points. Lee passes both Ben and Robert to move into third in shots-per-game. Seamus and Justin pass Pat Strachan for fifth and sixth in saves-per-game. In a year full of record-setting achievements for Lee Orr, he now passes Lorne for the all-time lead in ten-goal sessions with 45. He also has six 15-pinters in a row. Justin extends his record-setting streak of .800 sessions to eight. He has three .810 sessions in a row and passes Nathan for first all-time with 21. He has three straight .820 sessions and ties Laird for first all-time with 16 (Seamus moves into fifth with 12). Justin also has three straight .830 and .840 sessions, and ties Bron for most .850 sessions with nine. Seamus goes over .860 for the second time and over .870 for the first time. Justin ties Shem and Joern for sixth in 80 savers with 14. He has back-to-back 110-savers. Justin passes Chris and Lyle for fourth in 90-savers with 13 and Lyle for fifth in 100-savers with nine. Lee now has the second-longest consecutive session streak of all time at 34. Nathan has the longest streak of his career at ten; Seamus has seven. Seamus’ .917 ties for the fifth-highest goaltending session ever. Lee needs 42 shots on goal this season to become the first player to take 2,000 in a year. Seamus’ .851 this year is the third-highest single-season mark ever; Justin’s .834 is sixth. Shem’s 200 total star points rank fifth for a single season.

SDF/GDF: Troy continues to lead the SDF for a third straight ranking. Lee gets his rating above 100. The continued lack of VRH results in four more VRHers falling off the ranking and in Lorne falling from fourth to 20th. One more session with no VRH reply would only leave Tony and the Koth-Kappii with the minimum two session divisor. In fact, three more sessions like this would wipe VRH off the map. Status quo on the GDF as Justin’s on top for the 25th time ever, one away from tying Nathan for first in that regard. Seamus debuts sixth despite only having goaltended one session on this ranking.

The weather over the next two weeks seems to be going in BUSH’s favour. VRH still holds out hope for a weekend session. 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.