Starting an hour earlier on another sunny day in Burton had everyone in a good mood off the bat. Of course, with the DecaSession looming just five weeks away, much conversation was had about that with epithets such as ‘League of Klass’ and ‘Vancouver Roller Polo’ being directed at the partner league (among things that can actually be printed). It was pretty jovial, though, not mean-spirited. Everyone on both sides is getting quite excited about the Easter partydown. Stevie was back for his second session this week. This would be the third session in five days for BUSH.

Kyle, Seamus and Stevie would team up with Golden Joe against K.J., Lee and Nathan. Despite outshooting their opponents 31-18, Kyle was snakebitten, having major trouble adjusting to his new Eurotip curve (‘Eurotip? At least it’s uncircumcised, then’, remarked Justin.) Only one of Grenier’s 16 shots on goal beat Justin. It was obvious that today was going to be good for K.J. From the first puck drop, he was sniping. He pointed out the series, and his crew ganged up for a 5-2, 5-1 romp. Justin was on fire at .923 this first frame, and unfortunately, that’d be about it as far as David Government highlights were concerned.

Game 3 saw new teams, with K.J. and Nathan now with Kyle and Joe against Stevie, Lee, Seamus, and Justin. Putting K.J. with Kyle proved deadly at first. Kyle was beginning to get a feel for his new blade, and K.J. was still putting up big points. K.J.’s highlight goal this game (and probably of the session) was knocking Seamus’ dump pass out of the air tomahawk-style down to the ground and snapping it past Justin for the goal en route to a 5-1 demolition. Their opponents, though, refused to roll over, and Game 4 was the longest of the day, dragging out to overtime before Team Justin got the duke and sent the series to a rubber match.

One of the interesting changes that has come to BUSH in the past month since the introduction of faceoffs after every goal are the battles that take place in an effort to win them. At one point today, there was a four-player scrum at centre ice when everyone was digging their skate up against the ball and digging in with their sticks in an attempt to guide the orb to one of their teammates. It probably took six or seven seconds before the ball finally came loose. Players are now calling out wins after faceoffs like they usually do assists after goals. Nowhere was the importance of winning faceoffs demonstrated more than in Game 5. Now teamed with Kyle, Nathan and Joe, K.J. beat brother Seamus on the faceoff and ran straight up the pavement for a quick goal on Justin; another pick for the highlight reel. Justin saved the initial shot, but the ball was sent up into the air, where it spiralled, came back behind Justin, and dropped into the net. It was the demoralising backbreaker that led to a 5-3 win and thus the series. It was also indicative of Seamus’ play today; an admittedly poor session by his standards that already has him looking forward to the next session.

For the final series, Stevie, Lee, Kyle and Joe played the O’Connors, Nathan and Justin. There was just a smidgen of drizzle as the clouds rolled in. Stevie and Nathan became much more present here as they got to work on defence; both teams employing 2-1 cycling formations. Lee and Kyle have only lost series two all year playing together, and today would be no different, although they would drop a game in the middle to the O’Connors and Nathan. Despite K.J. keeping up his torrid scoring pace, Kyle and Lee were in together on all but one of their team’s goals. Stevie stepped up and help cash in a couple of great tic-tac-toe plays as well as setting up a couple himself. The series ended on a rather controversial note. Earlier in Game 8, a shot by Seamus that may have gone in past Joe was called back as the net was off (Joe saved three shots in a sequence on Seamus, but one of the saves may have been made behind the line while the net was off). A penalty shot was awarded that Joe saved. Lee’s final shot on Justin was initially saved but Justin was sent back into the net. The ball moved back as well, sitting between Justin’s legs behind the line as the net came off. Justin was angry but called it a goal and threw his gear off as his teammates argued that the net was off before the ball crossed over. Grenier himself argued for a penalty shot despite being on the other team, but Justin proclaimed it a goal and said what’s done is done. Regardless, it was quite a fun session and everyone enjoyed the earlier start time. The lineups Tuesday and today have made for some very solid session play.

One last note: the constant playing is beginning to wear not the wheels of everyone’s blades as much as it is beginning to beginning to wear out axles and bearings. Both Kyle and Lee had entire wheels detach themselves today, resulting in a painful swan dive to the asphalt in Kyle's case. As well, years of skaters walking from the cage to the stat table with skates on have completely removed the grass from the area on the east side of the rink. As a result, everyone is now just walking through mud, which gets stuck on skates and thus gets imported onto the rink. The rink could use a serious scrub. There were plenty of falls on the rough surface today.

The rarest of feats today in Burton: three players tying for first star. K.J. led all day in scoring and first place seemed all but conceded, but Kyle and Lee pointed out the final game to tie him. Ultimately, they all notched 27 points (17-and-10 K.J., 14-and-13 Lee, 13-and-14 Kyle). Combined, they owned the session rather thoroughly, and this is reflected in the rather blasé goaltending statistics; Justin never fully recovered from Game 3 and finished at .786 to Joe’s .763; Joe started out terribly but got better as the day went on. Justin was very happy about scoring seven points from goal, however.

Here are the game scores:
K.J. Lee Justin Nathan def. Kyle Seamus Stevie Joe 5-2 5-1
K.J. Kyle Nathan Joe def. Lee Seamus Stevie Justin 5-1 4-5 5-3
Stevie Lee Kyle Joe def. K.J. Seamus Nathan Justin 5-2 3-5 5-2

Faceoff stats:
Stevie Fergusson 1/1 (100.00%)
Nathan Robson 1/1 (100.00%)
Lee Orr 8/14 (57.14%)
Kyle Grenier 19/34 (55.88%)
K.J. O’Connor 9/21 (42.86%)
Seamus O’Connor 13/31 (41.94%)

Season Stats: Kyle retains the scoring lead 237-223 over Lee, who becomes the second player to hit 200 points before the end of February. Seamus is five points behind Pat for third. Nathan goes back around Oliver and Stefan and becomes the fifth player this season with 100 points. K.J. moves from eleventh to eighth. Justin and Stevie enter the top 20. Lee goes over 100 goals and passes Pat for second. Seamus passes Stefan for fourth in goals; K.J. jumps to sixth. Kyle passes Seamus for second in assists; he is four away from 100 while Seamus needs nine. K.J. ties Rob for tenth. Kyle passes 700 shots on goal. Lee needs five for 500; Seamus passes Pat for third; K.J. moves to seventh. K.J. rockets up to second in shooting percentage. Nathan falls to seventh behind Stefan and Lee. Joe and Justin lie eighth and ninth in saves. Joe has enough time in net now to enter the goaltending race for the year and lies sixth at .796. K.J. moves up to sixth in PPG and now sits over 3.00. He also passes Lee for fourth in GPG. K.J. does fall out of the top five in shots-per-game; Seamus falls behind Troy to fifth.

On the All-Time Front: Lee becomes the first player to pass 1,900 points and takes his lead over Oliver above 200 points for the first time. Justin needs seven points for 900; K.J. eleven; Kyle 51 as they all race to see who will be the seventh 1,000 points scorer in Burton history. Nathan is five points behind Ryno for 19th. Seamus is 28 goals behind Stefan for fourth. Kyle needs seven goals to become the seventh player with 500. Lee needs 15 assists for 900. Seamus is ten assists ahead of Bernie for third. Kyle is nine assist behind K.J. for ninth. Nathan becomes the 13th player with 200 assists. Justin passes Joern and becomes the fifth goaltender to make 3,000 saves. Justin is six games played behind Stefan for seventh. Nathan needs three games for 400; K.J. 15. Justin needs twelve games in goal for 200; Joe enters the top 15. Justin ties Bron for second in goalie star points at 300. Kyle pushes his career PPG over 3.10, the fourth eligible person ever to do so. Justin falls behind Nathan to fifth in saves-per-game. Lee records his amazing 75th career 15-pointer. Kyle’s streak is just amazing; it’s now a record 20 consecutive 15-pointers. Lee has five in a row. Kyle becomes the fifth player with 20 20-pointers; he’s one behind Seamus for fourth. K.J. passes Pat for seventh with 14. Kyle is one 25-pointer behind Lorne for second with twelve. Kyle is two ten-goal sessions behind Stefan for third, 30-28. K.J. ties Seamus at 27. K.J. passes Pat for fourth in 15-goal sessions with ten; Kyle and Lee each have eleven. K.J. ties Pat for eighth in ten-assisters with eight. Kyle and Lee have back-to-back ten-assisters. Joe’s .830 streak ends at two sessions. Justin ties Lyle for sixth in 80-savers with 17. He also ties Laird for third in 90-savers with 16, fifth in 100-savers with ten, and third in 110-savers with eight. Today’s organiser Nathan now owns the fifth-longest consecutive session streak ever with 26 (amazingly, all since 26 September). With the volume of sessions BUSH is playing, there’s now becoming an outside chance that Nathan could pass Oliver’s record without Oliver’s streak actually ending. Of course, a lot would have to happen for that to occur. Seamus isn’t far behind at 22.

SDF/GDF: Pat’s twelfth consecutive session on top is the fourth-longest streak ever. Not much changes other than Lee marginally slipping behind Troy to fifth in that tight race for positions two through five. K.J. doesn’t gain a position but does gain a large amount of points. Watsy falls due to inactivity; Stevie begins to climb as he gets closer to the minimum. On the GDF, Shem holds for a fifth straight session and 13th overall. Joe and Justin both pass the minimum number of sessions and shots for full eligibility: Joe lands in fourth; Justin in seventh. Expect a lot of change next ranking as the last BUSH and VRH sessions from January fall off (massive sessions for Pat and Kyle); eighteen skaters and four goalies will be affected in total.

I hope you caught Noel's great pics from Tuesday's session. The next BUSH session will probably be determined by the start time of Canada's next Olympic hockey game! We're also pulling for some VRH action Saturday as they come off of last weekend's epic 14-game record-setter. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.