It was a dark day to be a goaltender in BUSH Tuesday, for the league recruited two players who, if you created a list of the talent available in the Arrow Lakes that hadn’t joined in on Burton Hockey to this point, would be right at the top of the list. Tyson Klein may prove to be a gamechanger in Burton, and Nick Sundstrom has been threatening to enter the league for a long while. Both come equipped with decades of hockey experience between them. Today, they both made their debuts in an all-killer, no-filler line-up that looked as though it would amount to goaltender death. While the goalies each had their moment, it would prove to be prescient. Noel Ballard and his two lovely little lasses were on hand to document the occasion, and provided us with plenty of high-quality action shots that should be posted to the site on Thursday (be sure to check back and look for them then). It would be a short one today as all were eager to get back for the Canada-Germany Olympic men’s hockey game and Seamus had work at 4:00. Starting at 2:10 pm and having to be gone by 3:40 meant few breaks were taken. Of course, it would have started earlier were it not for the just-returned-from-Amsterdam Justin taking 15 minutes to visit family friends across the street he hadn’t seen in a year. And another 15 to get his gear ready.

Sticks-in-the-middle were the only way to go today, since any combination would be just fine. Nathan and Nick came to a net-sharing before the session (yes, poor Norton was bullied into goaltending again). Nathan would back Tyson and the O’Connor brothers against Kyle, Lee and Nick. From the second the puck dropped, the pace was nothing short of arduous; rarely has such an amount of shots been levied in such a quick amount of time as the presence of Tyson and Nick doubled the regular speed of the game. The entire session was characterised by rapid momentum swings. The change in Game 1 was a long-distance dump-in from Seamus that travelled across the rink and past Justin for an ugly goal to make it 4-2 for Team Nathan. Seamus would point out and Tyson would have four of his own in a 5-3 win that took 17 minutes. Momentum shift! The Lee-Kyle-Nick trio came out guns-a-blazing and had three beautiful tic-tac-toe goals en route to a 5-0 castration in which they outshot their opponents 25-3 in 13 minutes. This naturally prompted Team Nathan to come back and go up 3-0 in the rubber match. Team Justin came back to make it close but would lose the game 5-3 and thus the series.

As per agreement, Nick and Nate switched positions for the final two series. The pace remained quick as the O’Connors teamed with Lee to get up 3-0 on Kyle, Nathan and Tyson. Tyson and Kyle worked valiantly to score a couple of late ones but lost 5-2. Nathan then stepped up in Game 5 with two snipes on Justin while Kyle and Tyson continued to click alongside him. Equally deadly in Game 5 were their opponents with some nice tic-tac-toes, and the final game went into overtime before Team Nick won out 5-4. A short, but immensely entertaining session where no one was off the pace and everyone played really hard. Best of all, Tyson and Nick are now in the mix and just made Burton Hockey that much more solid. A big thanks again to Noel and the girls for taking photos!

With such a level playing field out there, it’s not a surprise that all five players who skated full-time today were all within three points of one another. Kyle and Seamus ultimately tied for the lead with 18 points (8G-10A for Kyle, 6G-12A for Seamus). Just two points behind was Lee with just three goals but 13 assists in the five games. K.J. and Tyson also had 15-pointers (10-5 and 5-10, respectively). Tyson was fearsomely fast today, and just missed the rookie assist record. Of course, all this did indeed make the goalies look rather average. Nathan led the way at .780. With major jet lag hampering him, Justin posted his worst session in three years at .750 (although he did notch a shutout), and Nick debuted at .719.

Here are the game scores:
Nathan K.J. Seamus Tyson def. Lee Kyle Justin Nick 5-3 0-5 5-3
Kyle Nathan Tyson Nick vs. Seamus K.J. Justin Lee 2-5 5-4

Faceoff stats:
Lee Orr 3/3 (100.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 9/13 (69.23%)
Seamus O’Connor 9/19 (47.37%)
Kyle Grenier 12/28 (42.86%)
Nick Sundstrom 2/5 (40.00%)
Tyson Klein 1/4 (25.00%)

Season Stats: Kyle is the first player this year over the 200-point mark (it’s February!). Lee is not far behind at 196. Seamus gets back to within 20 of Pat for third. Nathan is three points behind Oliver for sixth at 93. Lee needs six goals for 100; Seamus passes 50 and needs six to tie Stefan for fourth. K.J. enters the top ten. Lee becomes the first player to top 100 assists this year. Seamus moves two ahead of Kyle in the race for second, 84-82. Nathan passes Oliver for fourth. Seamus is 15 shots behind Pat for third; K.J. leaps into the top ten. Seamus has played all 62 BUSH games; Nathan, 61. Seamus closes the gap in total star points to Lee down to five (100-95) with Kyle leading at 125. K.J. passes Sam for fifth in GPG. Kyle passes Lorne for fourth in APG; K.J. falls to sixth. K.J. and Lee fall behind Graeme to fifth and seventh in shots-per-game with Sam in sixth.

On the All-Time Front: Lee now lies just five points away from 1,900. K.J. is 24 points behind Justin for seventh; Kyle is 40 points behind K.J. for eighth as they race toward 1,000. Nathan is 16 points behind Ryan for 19th and 18 points from 200. Kyle is 20 goals away from 500. Seamus retakes third in assists from Bernie, 621-618. Kyle is ten assists behind K.J. for ninth. Nathan needs two assists to become the 13th player with 200. K.J. becomes the eighth player with 2,000 shots on goal. Nathan needs 15 saves to become the first goalie to make 4,000. Justin is 57 saves behind Joern for fifth all-time. Seamus passes Joern for fifth in games played with 569. Nathan needs eleven games to become the tenth player with 400. Kyle passes Chris Jackins for 13th. Nathan is eight games goaltended behind Chris for second. Justin ties Laird for third in shutouts with 12. Seamus becomes the third player to score 800 total star points; Kyle passes K.J. for seventh. Tyson pulls off a 15-pointer in his rookie session. Kyle extends his record 15-pointer streak to 19 sessions; Lee has four in a row. K.J. has 26 ten-goal sessions, one behind Kyle and Seamus for fourth all-time. Lee’s ten-goal streak ends at three. Seamus passes Lorne and ties Stefan for third in ten-assisters with 17. Tyson hits the mark in his first session. A historic, if slightly sad moment, as Justin’s record streak of .800 sessions ends at ten; the first time since 2007(!) that the reigning Goaltender of the Year falls under the benchmark. This also ends a streak of five .830 sessions. Nathan has his .810 streak end at two. Justin also has his 90-saver streak end at four. Nathan ties Lee’s 2005-06 streak of 25 consecutive sessions played for the fifth-longest streak ever. Seamus is not far behind at 21. Shem’s streak ends at five. Tyson’s ten assists today are just one short of Pedro Santos’ rookie record.

SDF/GDF: At 35 total sessions on top, Pat is three away from Lorne’s mark of 38. K.J. passes Stefan for seventh and Tony re-enters the top ten. Shaylin falls below the minimum session number and plummets as a result. Shem holds on top of the GDF but major upheaval behind him as Nathan moves from fourth to second, trading places with Seamus. Alex and Dom trade fifth and sixth.

BUSH is scheduled to play again Thursday, possibly with another touted rookie. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.