You know you’ve been spoiled when just four days with no hockey feels like an eternity. Coming off of a February that was the second-busiest month in league history and a finish of four sessions in seven days, BUSH was back at it again Thursday for a 12:30 departure time. (When you throw in the two VRH sessions, February tied May 2000 for busiest Burton Hockey month ever with twelve sessions.) Troy Waldron was only gone for just over two weeks, but missed five sessions in that time. Coming off of the only full-session point-out in history, it would be interesting to see how Troy would perform against the likes of red-hot scoring leader Kyle Grenier, who had won the won last three sessions he’d skated since Troy left (and was coming off of an .897 in goal to boot). It would be another day for a rookie to shine as the insurgent Jesse Cann was lined up against Golden Joe Leonard. All good things come to an end, unfortunately, and this session took place at the expense of Nathan’s 27 consecutive-session streak, quiet revenge for Seamus’ streak ending back on Saturday.

You have to love Arrow Lakes weather; it was drizzling in Arrow Park and yet sunny and bright in Burton. Sticks-in-the-middle gave Lee, Troy, and Justin to Joe, and they would take the first series despite being outshot. Troy in particular was on fire to start, scoring nine points in this series (and 14 in the first three games). It was Joe’s superb goaltending that gave his team the series In fact, that would prove to be the case in every series today as he stood on his head all day. That’s not to say young Jesse didn’t have his moments either; he was solid in this series and threw down some excellent pad saves.

Series 2 gave Jesse his first-ever win, as Troy pointed out the game for his team and factored in on some sweet tic-tac-toe action with Seamus and Justin. Game 3 saw Justin go down a wheel; his wheels were issues all day and meant that small parts of four games were played 2-on-2 (although it perhaps amounted to eight or nine minutes total all day). Lee, Kyle and Noel had chemistry of their own, and slowly began breaking their opponents down. Those who have been reading the summaries over the past month will have noticed the continual improvement of Noel’s game, and today just drove it home even further as Noel had a career session. Series 2 saw Noel setting up goal after goal after goal; one would have to think he is the most improved player so far this season. Eventually, the team became too much for their opponents; Game 3 ended in a handful of minutes once Justin’s break was over, and Game 4 lasted eight minutes total. Game 5 took slightly longer as both goalies had their best play of the session, but Team Joe was too much at this point and ultimately netted a golden ‘O’ for Golden Joe. (Luckily for Seamus, Mrs. O’Connor and Baby-To-Be O’Connor, who were working just up the block, didn’t stay around long enough to see that.)

With the days getting later, time constraints aren’t as much of an issue anymore, and the was still plenty of time for more action. The third series matched Joe with Lee, Seamus and Justin against Jesse with Kyle, Troy and Noel. Lee and Kyle were beginning to emerge here as the dominant forces in the session after a first half of even play. Lee carried the play through much of the series en route to a 5-3, 5-2 win. Kyle did get in on all five of his crew’s goals, however. To cap it off, one last game was played so that Justin and Kyle could play together for the first time all day; this ended rather quickly when Justin finally lost one wheel too many and had to sit for the rest of the game. It ended quickly after that; Lee and Noel always work well and paired with the speed of Troy, it was a bit much as they got to stay fresh thanks to using subs.

A fun day with eight games in all. All of the skaters accounted quite well for themselves today, and both Lee and Noel had career session scoring highs. We can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow, although the numbers should be smaller.

Stefan Klopp has uploaded two dozen pictures from the record-breaking 20 February VRH session; go check them out!

Did I just say the all-time leading scorer had a career session? Yes, believe it or not, Lee Orr’s career high is only 32 points, set back in 2004. That took him eleven games. Today, it took him just eight to score 14 goals and add 18 assists on 52 shots. Kyle had a slow start but recovered for an excellent 25 in second place (15G-10A, 54 shots). In third was Troy, who scored eight times and added 15 helpers. Noel’s 19 points is a career-best for him as he is beginning to get his game back after twelve years off skates. Everyone was in double-digit assists today. In goal, Joe was outstanding and consistent all day and wound up at .835 on 106 saves and a shutout. Jesse struggled in the final three games but had a good start to his rookie session (close to .800 after the first series); he finished at .705 on 93 saves. As well, he had a shot on goal; a rare achievement for a goalie in 3-on-3. He certainly looks like a game prospect for the future and should be solid with some games under his belt next time.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Troy Justin Joe def. Kyle Noel Seamus Jesse 5-2 5-3
Joe Lee Kyle Noel def. Seamus Troy Jesse Justin 4-5 5-3 5-0
Seamus Justin Lee Joe def. Kyle Troy Noel Jesse 5-3 5-2
Speed (Lee Troy Joe Noel) def. Control (Seamus Justin Kyle Jesse) 5-3

Faceoff stats:
Noel Ballard 9/14 (64.29%)
Kyle Grenier 15/25 (60.00%)
Justin Gordon 13/23 (56.52%)
Lee Orr 8/19 (42.11%)
Seamus O’Connor 7/18 (38.89%)
Troy Waldron 3/11 (27.27%)

Season Stats: The race on top for the scoring lead tightens up as Lee closes it almost in half to Kyle, 265-255. Seamus passes Pat for third, 172-155. Troy moves into eighth and needs twelve for 100. Justin enters the top ten and Noel moves up to 14th. Kyle passes 150 goals. Troy moves up to sixth in goals and needs four for 50. Justin enters the top ten. Kyle and Seamus both moves over 100 assists on the year. Noel enters the top ten in assists. Kyle has 774 shots on goal. It’s March. Within two sessions, he should have one of the five-highest shooting seasons in Burton history. IT’S MARCH. At 545, Lee will be there soon enough. Troy jumps from tenth to sixth in shots; Justin goes to ninth. In what is assuredly a typo, Lee is fifth in shooting percentage. Joe passes Nathan, Bron and Alan to move to fifth in save percentage. He also moves to sixth in saves. Seamus takes the games played lead away from Nathan, with Kyle moving to second. Joe moves to sixth in games goaltended and posts his first shutout of the year. Lee closes the gap in three-star points behind Kyle to 150-130. Troy is now sole fifth. Joe ties Alex for fourth in goalie star points. Troy narrowly falls behind K.J. to sixth in PPG but remains over 3.00. Troy falls to fifth in GPG behind Lee and K.J. Seamus and Justin fall from the top five in shots-per-game, bringing Sam and Lee up. Lee’s 32 points is the fourth-highest scoring session this season; his 18 assists tie for second-highest. Kyle’s 15 assists rank sixth this season for sessions.

On the All-Time Front: Lee is just 46 points away from becoming the first player to hit 2,000. Seamus needs ten for 1,300. Seamus passes Oliver for second in all-time BUSH scoring. Kyle is twelve points behind K.J. for eighth and 48 behind Justin for seventh. Troy is 24 points behind for 15th. Seamus is 18 goals behind Stefan for fourth. Kyle becomes the seventh player to score 500 goals and is 19 behind K.J. for sixth. Troy is ten goals behind Robert for 17th. Lee becomes the second player to score 900 assists. Can he pass Oliver by the end of the season? Kyle passes K.J. for ninth in assists. Troy is three assists behind pat for 15th. Justin is eleven shots on goal behind K.J. for eighth. Seamus needs 15 games for 600. That’s only Joe’s second career shutout? Lee just keeps slowly creeping toward 3.00 PPG all-time. At 45, Seamus is one 15-pointer behind Oliver for third all-time. Kyle is one behind Stefan for fifth at 35. Troy passes Mitch and Pat and ties Ben for ninth at 16. Kyle’s record 15-pointer streak goes to 21 sessions. Lee has a streak of six, Seamus a streak of three; that’s Lee first ever double. Kyle ties Lorne for second in 25-pointers at 13; Lee has 17. Lee ties Kyle for second in 30-pointers at four. Justin ties pat for eighth in 20-pointers with 13. Lee and Kyle have back-to-back 25-pointers. Noel has his first 15-pointer. Kyle is just one ten-goal session away from tying Stefan for third all-time (30-29). Seamus passes K.J. for fifth and sits at 28. Kyle passes Lee for second in 15-goal sessions with twelve (still far back of Lorne at 24). Seamus passes Stefan for third in ten-assisters with 18. Noel has his first ten-assister. Kyle and Lee each have three ten-assisters in a row. Joe has back-to-back 90-savers. Jesse breaks 90 in his first session out. As aforementioned, Nathan’s consecutive session streak ends at 27, the fifth-longest ever (amazingly, it only began in September).

SDF/GDF: Pat ties Lorne for most rankings topped all-time with 38; his 14 in a row is the third-longest streak ever. Lee has almost caught Kyle for second. Seamus falls behind K.J. to sixth, Nathan enters the top ten, and Noel the top 15 for the first time. Kyle holds the GDF for a second ranking in a row. Alan falls due to inactivity; Joe moves up to fifth right behind Nathan and Laird.

If all goes well, BUSH will be back for Friday. Bernie is looking to get VRH going this weekend as well. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.