An odd but intriguing session tonight. Lee was resting his arm and catching up on work, while Seamus would miss his first games of 2010 out-of-town for the day. This left organising up to Justin, who put together a 2-on-2 lineup that would help showcase two of the unsung heroes of BUSH, Noel and Nathan. Grenier would be there as usual, along with the returning Graeme and Laird. The requisite delays in getting everyone aware of the session, plus some family vehicle trouble for Noel, meant that the crew didn’t even get out of Nakusp until 2:30. With the days getting longer, there was still opportunity for a decent-length session as long as everyone could hold up through the pace of 2-on-2. Of course, just to add a last bit of insult to injury, the Ballard caravan (carrying half of the crew) got as far Paradise Lodging before Noel realised in all of the hubbub that he had neglected to bring his skates. Rather than turn back, Kyle gave his skates to Noel and entered the net instead of Justin.

Having Laird and Diane there meant the return of the massive Bilinski nets, thus opening up the possibility of ultra-quick games and major stats-padding. And with the teams being Noel, Justin and Kyle versus Graeme, Nathan, and Laird, the goals did come quite quickly- at first. At 4-3 Team Kyle, the goalies stepped up and would not hold back for the rest of the day. The grinding pace and plethora of turnovers also meant that today would not feature a huge amount of games. Nevertheless, it was fun, and for the first time this season, the late start meant the crew would indeed see the sun go down behind Mount Ingersoll. In Game 1, both teams were clicking and this resulted in all four skaters being part of every goal their team scored. Noel and Justin would both point out in a 5-4 victory. Game 2 was also even, but Noel was able to pot home a breakaway to end Justin’s point-out; Justin then took a pass from Kyle to do the same to Noel. Nathan was able to keep up the pace with Noel and Justin, but Graeme was tiring quickly and was falling behind plays by the end of the game. The goalies were resolute, and helped prolong the game to nearly 40 minutes as Noel and Justin took the series 5-3 on the back of Kyle Grenier.

After a much-needed break (you’d have thought Graeme was the one who had played four sessions this week and not Nathan), Nate and Noel switched teams. It was close for the first half of the game, but Justin and Nathan made for excellent teammates, eventually shutting down Laird for a 5-2 win in a game where Graeme was simply gassed after a week of snowmobiling. Justin and Nathan scored just enough points in the last game to beat Noel for the day, who basically had to be a team unto himself in the final game as Graeme relegated himself to defence. As well, Noel and Graeme had to deal with Kyle, who was just getting better as the day went along. Noel definitely took another step forward today. Perhaps not the most technically-sound session, but certainly a happy little shindig for everyone involved. And all six players were certainly happy with their statistics today!

Poor Noel led the scoring all day but winds up being denied his maiden first star by a single point. Instead, it is Nathan who snatches his inaugural skating three-star in his 151st game on skates, sharing the honour with Justin as both finished at twelve points (3G-9A and 9G-3A, respectively). Justin had a massive 54 shots on goal in the three games. Noel takes third with an even-handed 6G-5A. Graeme disappeared in Game 3 and finished six-and-two. The big story was in goal; despite the massive Bilinski nets, Kyle and Laird held up quite nicely. Kyle poured it on en route to a career-best .897 with 78 saves in just three games. Laird was also on top of his game today, notching .833 on 75 saves and getting himself almost to his goal of getting his career average above .800.

Here are the game scores:
Noel Justin Kyle def. Graeme Nathan Laird 5-4 5-3
Justin Nathan Kyle def. Graeme Noel Laird 5-2

Faceoff stats:
Justin Gordon 11/14 (78.57%)
Noel Ballard 6/14 (42.86%)
Nathan Robson 4/11 (36.36%)
Graeme Orr 3/9 (33.33%)

Season Stats: With the leaders not skating today, this means not too much happens with season scoring stats. Justin moves to eleventh in goals. Kyle needs one assist for 100 on the year and is 16 behind Lee. Graeme jumps three spots to seventh in shots-on-goal. Just passing over 150 shots against means Kyle, with his session today, becomes the leading goaltender of 2010 with .849, narrowly ahead of Shem. This means Kyle leads in both scoring and goaltending. Laird moves to .813 ahead of Alan and Bron. Seamus’ absence means that no one has played in all 78 BUSH games, and only Nathan has been at every session. He leads with 77 games played ahead of Seamus (75) and Kyle (72). Nathan ties Oliver and Troy for fifth in three-star points. Nathan also ties Dom for sixth in total star points. Graeme passes Pat for second in shots-per-game; Justin passes Seamus for fifth. Kyle moves to second in saves-per-game behind Shem. Kyle’s .897 is the third-best session in goal this season; his 975 PPS ranks fifth.

On the All-Time Front: Justin becomes the seventh player to score 900 points; he is 16 ahead of K.J. Nathan pases Ryno and becomes the 19th player with 300 points. He’s nine points behind Joe Chwachka for 18th. Justin passes Bernie for eighth in goals. Kyle is three assists behind K.J. for ninth. Justin also becomes the ninth player to take 2,000 shots on goal; he is 49 behind K.J. for eighth. This can’t be right: Kyle ties Troy for second in save percentage. Laird is 104 saves behind Nathan for first. Justin three games played behind Stefan for seventh. Nathan becomes the tenth player to play 400 games. Kyle moves to fourth in saves-per-game. No sessions scoring streaks apply today as we only played three games. Nathan plays consecutive session number 27. Sadly, Seamus’ streak ends at 22. Laird joins Nathan (30) and Justin (24) in the 20 .800-session club; Kyle has his second. Laird also ties Seamus for third in .810 sessions with 17, and Justin for second in .820 sessions with 17. Kyle goes over .820 for the first time.

SDF/GDF: The massive amount of sessions this month means that only February sessions are left on the rankings. Eighteen skaters and four goalies have sessions coming off today; only four and two have sessions going back on. This has the biggest effect on Lorne, who falls from third to ninth. Of course, Pat stays on top as always. Lee moves up two spots to third, and Justin three to eleven. Nathan re-enters the top twelve, and Bernie flies up ten spots to twelfth. Four skaters are knocked out completely. Pat has the third-longest streak on top ever and is just one way from tying Lorne for most rankings ever on top. Big change on the GDF; Kyle’s monster session moves him to the top of the charts for the first time ever ahead of Shem. Laird jumps from ninth to fourth; Seamus drops as he falls under the minimum.

This period of non-stop hockey is really giving Burton Hockey a head of steam with just a month until the DecaSession. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.