Chilly, chilly history was made again today. BUSH put on the coldest session ever as it sunk down to minus-10 Celsius, breaking the longstanding record held by the infamous Calgary attempt of January 2003. Your humble statistician wasn’t able to get down to Burton today for this session (no blame levied by mutual agreement), so enjoy these stats with minimal description or context.

By all accounts, the powder was easy to remove from the rink, and it really went off like any other session (besides the cold, of course, and Seamus playing without a mask when one of the helmets was left behind in Nakusp). It was a three-game grindfest with two of Burton’s top dual threats battling each other in net. The weather actually seems to be looking good for more hockey despite it being mid-December. With the snow cleared off of McCormack, and the pond in front of Lee’s house almost ready for use, the venues are more than acceptable condition-wise. Lee will be back next week and this should help the greatest season ever continue on the east side of the Monashees.

The goalies dominated today, with both goalies over 30 saves-per-game. Justin edged Seamus .896-.891 to take the day. Offensively, we had the rarest of occurrences: a three-way tie for first at ten points between Lee (6G-4A-58 shots), Shem (6G-4A-35 shots) and Graeme (9G-1A-55 shots). Nathan was close behind with seven points.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Shem Seamus def. Graeme Nathan Justin 2-5 5-2 5-4

Season Stats: Lee passes the historic 700-point mark. Graeme passes Ryan for 12th and needs nine for 200. Shem passes Tony to enter the top 15; Nathan is two behind Andrew for 19th. Graeme passes 100 goals and ties Ryan for twelfth there. Shem passes Mitch for ninth in assists and is four behind K.J.; Seamus passes Lorne for eleventh. Justin hits 50 assists, almost all from goal. Lee passes the astronomical mark of 2,000 shots on goal. Justin becomes the third goalie this year to pass 1,000 saves; Seamus goes from 15th to 13th. Nathan needs two games for 100 on the year. Graeme ties Lorne for tenth in three-star points. Justin passes K.J. for ninth in total star points and Seamus ties K.J. for tenth. Graeme jumps from ninth to fifth in shots-per-game. Seamus and Justin move over 20.00 saves-per-game. Seamus’ .891 today is the fourth-best session of the year.

On the All-Time Front: Four assists is goal is all it takes for Seamus to take back fourth in all-time scoring from Stefan. Graeme is two points behind Kyle for tenth. Shem passes Tony Hajdu for 23rd. Graeme becomes the tenth player to score 300 goals. Seamus is ten assists behind Lorne for fourth all-time. Nathan is one assist behind Troy for 15th; Shem is two behind Ryno for 19th. Seamus passes Shem and Terryn to move to third all-time in goaltending. Lee ties Lorne for third in games played at 598. Seamus needs two games for 500; Justin 13. Graeme is five games behind K.J. for tenth. Seamus needs nine games in goal for 100. Graeme passes Robert Rogers to enter the top ten in three-star points. Justin passes Laird and ties Bron for second in all-time goalie star points (280) while Seamus enters the top ten (130). Seamus and Justin pass Nathan for fourth and fifth in saves-per-game. Seamus ties Chris Jackins for seventh in .800 sessions with 14. Justin has his record ninth in a row. Justin ties Nathan and Laird for most .820 sessions at 16; Seamus is three behind. Justin has a record-tying four .840 sessions in a row. Justin passes Bron for most .850 sessions with ten; he has two in a row. Justin also passes Nathan for first in .860 sessions with eight and Bron for first in .870 sessions with six. Justin has tied himsel with K.J. and Nathan for most .880 (4) and .890 (3) sessions. Seamus, meanwhile, becomes just the second player (after brother K.J.) to record .890 sessions back-to-back. Justin has three 100-savers in a row. Seamus has back-to-back 90-savers. Justin’s 110-saver streak ends at two. Nathan plays his twelfth consecutive session, Seamus his eighth, Graeme his sixth. Lee becomes the first player to score 700 points or record 2,000 shots on goal in a season. Seamus’ .863 is the second-best goaltending season ever; Justin’s .837 is fifth. Justin becomes the fifth player to record a 1,000-save season; his 1,057 saves rank fifth for a single season. Shem’s 215 total star points ranks fourth-highest for a single season.

SDF/GDF: Barring a weekend session from VRH, here’s the lowdown on the rankings. Troy, Kyle, and Lee hold steady on top of the SDF. Troy will fall under his minimum next session if he doesn’t play, however, opening up first place to Kyle, Lee and Seamus. The lack of VRH hurts Oliver and Pat, who fall below their minimums and drop to ninth and eleventh, respectively. A huge change on the GDF, meanwhile, as Seamus ascends to first place with the second-highest rating ever of .9043 on the strength of his recent lights-out play. Justin just nudges ahead of Shem and drops Shem to third. Bron plummets from the top ten.

Don’t forget to check BurtonHockey.com every day this month as we continue to unveil the Burton 40. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.