It has been a trying month of November for VRH. Not only did it rain on an almost daily basis, we also had to sit idly by and hear accounts of session after session coming out of BUSH. So, when we finally saw a forecast for loads of sunshine, we jumped on the opportunity. Today was our day.

We had a good showing today with 11 people coming out. The rink was half-frozen due to the building connected to it. Initially we were thinking of playing on feet but quickly realized that would be stupid, we would take the knocks and be careful when on the frost.

Pat once again put on a solid showing, dipsy-doodling around us all day. He also only lost 2 games all day. With that said we had some really excellent games that could have gone either way.

Having the frost on the rink also created a new dynamic for the game. When you would go out into no-man’s land you had to make sure you had your speed already, and didn't need to turn, because once you hit the frost you couldn't kick off or turn at all. It was ridiculous.

Anyway, onto the series. The first one was Jordan B, Jordan D, Oliver, Bernie, Pat with Shaylin in net up against Sam, Stefan, Joern, Ryan and Dom. The first game went really quick with Team Dom netting 5 quick goals against Shaylin who was looking pretty shaky in his first game.

Second game saw some balanced scoring coming from Team Shay with goals from 4 different players, and all 5 of their forwards getting a point, whereas Team Dom only managed to net 2 goals on 4 shots; Shay again looking a bit poor.

In the third game Team Dom was able to get a little more pressure and put the screws to Team Shay. However, Shay started to pick up his game and held Team Dom again to 2 goals while once again Team Shay found balanced scoring from their team.

In the final game of the series Shay really began to find his game and shut down Team Dom once again. Jordan Downey apparently had 1 handjob and got a solid blocked shot in. Once again another balanced effort out of Team Shay to close out the series.

At this point of the Shaylin wanted to come out of net and try out his new blades he bought. Joern wasn't really into playing goal, so it was looking like things could possibly die out. Then from the corner, the voice of a one Oliver “the German Brick Wall” Koth-Kappus pipped up, stating he WANTED to play net. As we all thought he was joking we continued to try and convince Joern to play, however Oliver chimed in again he was going to play goal.

After suiting up in the gear and stating he felt like a warrior from Hiranmair, we buckled down and set up teams. We had Stefan, Pat, Jordan D, Sam with Oliver in net up against Joern, Ryan, Shay, Bernie, Jordan B with Dom in net.

So how was Oliver in his first game in net since 2001? Solid as a f**king rock posting a .917 save percentage and completely frustrating team Dom in the process. Pat also pointed out in this game in the lopsided 5-1 final.

We decided new teams were in order at this point, so we did a little shuffle, and came up with, Jordan B, Jordan D, Bernie, Joern, Stefan and Dom pitted against Pat, Sam, Ryan, Shay with Oliver in net. The change up worked great and saw the two teams battle to an eventual 5-4 victual for Team Oliver. Oliver’s numbers fell significantly during this game, however he was able to post another victory for his team.

After this game Sam had to leave to go play a soccer game. What a trooper; played a good 4 hours of hockey and had his mom pick him up to take him straight to his game where he would go run around for another 90 minutes. Anyway this meant we had to adjust our teams again, which Jordan took the liberties of doing. What he came up with, Joern, Pat, Ryan, Shay and Oliver against Stefan, Bernie, Jordan D, Jordan B, and Dom.

Game 3 for Oliver in net saw him post more respectable numbers, and shutting the door on Team Dom while Ryan and Pat went on to flat out destroy Dom with 5 goals on 7 shots. We realized at this point we were going to be losing the sun soon, and need to get the games going, so breaks were thrown out, straight into another game.

In game 4 for Oliver we saw him post his 4th victory of the day in an extremely close 5-4 battle. Dom stood on his head for most of this game, but once again ended up losing another one.

In Oliver's 5th game in net he was finally broken, as Team Dom finally broke out and slammed Team Oliver 5-2 with 5 goals in 10 shots. While .500 save percentage is not good, it was certainly still miles ahead of the dismal .333 he posted in 2001.

In our final and 10th game of the day, Team Dom stuck it to Team Oliver one final time with a solid 5-1 victory, and breaking Oliver’s relatively good numbers all day with 5 goals on 8 shots.

At that point the sun was setting, and there was a co-op car that needed returning. So we called it quits to put an end to what was a fantastic day of hockey. I am happy to report that Oliver really enjoyed his games in net, and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw him in net again sometime in the future.

Thanks, Stefan! Ho, hum. Another session, another destructive performance from Pat Elischer, who appears to be headed for Most Outstanding Player of 2009. Today he put up yet another 30-plus pointer, going 15-18-33-55. As usual, no one was in the ballpark. The next closest was Jordan Barlow at 21 points (an even handed 11G-10A on 31 shots), quietly establishing himself as by far the most accurate shooter in history, all while playing defence. The race for third was close, but Ryno edged Stefan by a hair, 18-17. With so many players in double digits, the goaltenders had a rather trying day, except maybe for Shaylin who did quite well in his rookie sojourn at .769. Dom stopped the same amount of shots in ten games he usually does in four or five and finished at .722. Oliver had flashes of brilliance at the beginning but would settle for .672 at the end of the day, which is still more than twice his previous outing in goal!

Here are the game scores:
Barlow Downey Oliver Bernie Pat Shaylin def. Sam Stefan Joern Ryan Dom 3-5 5-2 5-3 5-2
Stefan Pat Downey Sam Oliver def. Shaylin Barlow Bernie Ryan Joern Dom 5-1
Pat Sam Ryan Shaylin OIiver def. Downey Barlow Bernie Stefan Joern Dom 5-4
Joern Pat Ryan Shaylin Oliver vs. Stefan Bernie Downey Barlow Dom 5-4 5-4 2-5 1-5

Season Stats: Oliver is now 13 points behind Ben for third. Meanwhile, Pat jumps over both Stefan and Mitch and over 300 points into fifth. Stefan remains sixth and needs five points for 300; Mitch falls to seventh. Ryan needs ten points for 200; Barlow passes 100 and is one point behind Nathan for 20th. Pat is one goal behind Mitch for fourth; Stefan moves to sixth ahead of K.J. and Oliver. Pat rockets from tenth to seventh in assists. Bernie needs one assist for 100. Stefan passes 800 shots on goal. Pat passes K.J. for ninth in shots. Dom passes Lyle for fourth in saves, lies 36 behind Justin for third and needs 64 for 1,000. Oliver is ten games played behind Lee for the season lead at 222. Stefan moves to eighth at 139; Pat enters the top 20. Dom passes Joern for third in games goaltended. Pat jumps into the lead in APG ahead of Lee and Troy. Pat’s 33 points today tie for fifth-best in a session this year.

On the All-Time Front: Stefan becomes the fifth player to score 1,100 points and goes back around Seamus for fourth all-time. Bernie becomes the sixth player to score 1,000. Pat passes Troy and becomes the 17th player to reach 300 points. Sam enters the top 30, and Barlow passes 100 points. Joern is five goals behind Graeme for tenth. Oliver needs four assists to become the first to reach 1,000. Stefan needs three assists for 500. Pat and Ryan pass Shem for 18th and 19th in assists. Oliver is eight shots behind Lorne for second all-time. Ryan passes Joe for 15th in shots. After weeks of crawling his shot total toward eligibility, Barlow now has enough shots on goal to be crowned all-time shooting percentage king by a mile. Oliver becomes the first player ever with 900 games played. Stefan is one game played behind Justin for seventh. Ryan passes Simon for 18th. Downey needs one game for 100. Pat’s APG goes over 1.50. Pat now has the second-longest 15-pointer streak ever tied with Lee at eleven. Pat takes his record 20-pointer streak to nine. Barlow has his first 20-pointer. Pat is fifth in 25-pointers at seven and becomes the first five-time 30-pointer in Burton history. Pat has his tenth career ten-goal session and ninth in a row. He is sixth in 15-goal session with six. Dom has five 80-savers in a row. Oliver’s record consecutive session streak goes up to 41. Bernie’s goes to 20; he’s the only person to do that thrice. Dom’s goes to eight. Dom’s 69 games goaltended this year ranks sixth for a single season ever.

SDF/GDF: Today’s stats are added to Tuesday’s BUSH session to finalise the ranking, helping to mitigate the losses VRH players have suffered over the past few weeks on the charts. Pat thus remains fourth instead of falling to 14th, and Oliver only jumps to sixth instead of fourth with Barlow jumping up to seventh. Nothing of import changes with regard to the GDF.

Can the BUSH crew successfully sweep the snow off the ALHS Archives Arena at John McCormack Park and play again in 2009? The mystery continues. 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.