Back-to-back action from BUSH. Another bright, shining spring day for the crew to revel in. Troy Waldron would be making his return to goal for 2010 against fellow rival for the all-time goaltending title Seamus O’Connor. Nick Sundstrom would be back for his sophomore stint along with debutant Anthony Watson (no relation to Andrew or Stewart). Seamus’ day was already made when the Valley Food Store announced it was upgrading its slurpee machine, and he carried that goodwill into the net, backing Nathan, Kyle, Nick and Justin in Series 1 against Lee, K.J., Anthony and Troy. Despite using a sub all series, Kyle pointed out. It didn’t matter which way the shots were lopsided (Game 1 for Team Troy, Game 2 for Team Seamus) for Seamus and Kyle were quite a tandem. Seamus got three points in the first game – from goal. Lee and K.J. battled hard but Team Seamus carried the set 5-2, 5-3. Nathan had a beautiful snipe to end the series.

The heat almost became a factor; it may have been ten degrees but it was bright and nearly cloudless. Sticks in the middle were foregone for engineered teams this round. Kyle and Nick stayed on the sub team for the next set, paired with K.J. and Anthony and backed by Troy. They would face Justin, Seamus, Lee and Nathan. The engineering didn’t work. At all. The Justin/Seamus/Nathan combo tore Troy open for five unanswered goals, chasing him from net in twelve minutes.

With Troy handing goaltending duties to Nick, he jumped into his skates and was invigorated. Teamed with Kyle and Nathan, Troy scored four points his first game out, and Kyle pointed out again. Nick showed huge improvement in goal, going .833 all through the session until the final game, and pulling out huge saves. Seamus was sacrificed to keep things even, but he performed his job admirably all day. Team Nick would win the series 5-2, 5-3.

With K.J. having to leave for the day, subs were finally abandoned. The Series 2 line-ups were re-used, and the results were nearly the same. Despite the best efforts of Kyle and Troy and their endless cycling in an attempt to get things going, Seamus stood on his head. Meanwhile, Nathan is finding his game these days; he notched four goals and three assists in the final series, outpointing everyone to lead his crew to a 5-1, 5-2 victory. It’ll be one day off and then right back to the grindstone for Sunday.

Despite three big losses in seven games, Kyle was in on every goal that his teams scored. He led the day with 8G-14A on 59 shots. Tying for second were the pairing of Lee and Justin, who worked well as a combo all day. Lee was 10-and-10, Justin was 8-and-14. Not far behind was Nathan at 18 points, a new career high for him. Seamus was on fire all day and never let off. He finished .845 with 109 saves, a shutout and seven assists. Coming in for relief with no warm-up, Nick was also solid. He was .833 for most of the session before being fed to the wolves in the final series. Still, .789 is pretty steady and a 70-point improvement from last week to boot. Troy was killed in Game 5, dropping him to .769. Of course, he then went out and scored 12 points in four games, so his day ended just fine after all.

Here are the game scores:
Nathan Kyle Nick Justin Seamus def. Lee K.J. Anthony Troy 5-2 5-3
Justin Seamus Lee Nathan def. Kyle Nick K.J. Anthony Troy 5-0
Troy Nick Kyle Nathan def. Lee Justin Anthony Seamus K.J. 5-2 5-3
Justin Seamus Lee Nathan def. Kyle Nick Anthony Troy 5-1 5-2

Faceoff stats:
Nick Sundstrom 1/1 (100.00%)
Troy Waldron 6/10 (60.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 12/21 (57.14%)
Justin Gordon 7/13 (53.85%)
Kyle Grenier 11/12 (50.00%)
Lee Orr 7/17 (41.18%)
Nathan Robson 0/2 (0.00%)
Anthony Watson 0/2 (0.00%)

Season Stats: The race for top spot remains tight, 287-275 in favour of Kyle over Lee. Troy, Stefan, Oliver, K.J. and Justin are in a tight race for sixth through tenth; Troy is the sixth person in triple digits this year, and the sixth with 50 goals. K.J., Nathan and Justin aren’t far behind. Kyle cuts the assist gap to 143-123 behind Lee. Nathan needs ten for 100. Troy needs three for 50. Lee passes 600 shots; Nathan and K.J. 200. K.J. falls behind Barlow to third in shooting percentage. Seamus passes Alex for third in saves. Justin enters the top ten in games played. Seamus is the fourth goalie with multiple shutouts this season. Seamus is just five goalie star points behind Shem and Dom for the lead. Troy passes K.J. for fifth in PPG; both fall under 3.00.

On the All-Time Front: Lee is just 26 points away from the magical 2,000-point mark (he didn’t even have 1,000 at this time last year!). Seamus needs three for 1,300. In the race to become the seventh player to hit 1,000 points, Justin moves to 945, and Kyle moves into a tie for eighth with K.J. at 899. Troy is twelve points behind Ben for 15th. Nathan passes Joe and is two points behind Robert for 17th. Kyle is 14 goals behind K.J. for sixth. Nathan needs five goals for 100. Kyle is twelve assists behind Joern for eighth. Troy passes pat for 15th in assists. Kyle becomes the sixth player with 2,500 shots. Troy falls from second to sixth in all-time save percentage. Seamus moves up one sport to fifth and becomes the ninth goalie with 2,000 saves. Seamus needs to play eight games to reach 600. K.J. needs ten for 400. Kyle needs three for 300. Troy passes 150 and enters the top 20. Seamus ties Dom for tenth in games goaltended. Seamus ties Lyle for sixth in shutouts with seven. Lee passes 1,100 three-star points. Lee has three ten-goal sessions in a row. Kyle ties Lorne for fifth in ten-assisters with 16. Both Kyle and Lee have four in a row (the record is five, set by Kyle last June). Kyle ties Stefan for fifth in 15-pointers with 36; he has 22 in a row. Lee has seven in a row. Kyle ties Seamus for fourth in 20-pointers with 22; Justin ties K.J. for seventh at 17. Kyle and Lee each have three in a row. Seamus passes Shem and ties Bron for fourth in .800 sessions with 18. Troy’s .810 streak ends at three. Seamus has back-to-back .810 sessions and passes Laird in all-time .810 sessions with 18 (third overall). Seamus ties Bron for fifth in .830 sessions with ten, and moves past K.J. into sixth in .840s with seven. He lies eighth in 80-savers with 15, including seven in a row. Hard to believe, but the longest active consecutive session streak in BUSH right now is just five (Kyle and Justin); in other words, a streak dating back to last Tuesday. Kyle already has the sixth-largest single-season shooting total, and it’s the first week of March.

SDF/GDF: Pat sets a record for most rankings topped with 39. Nothing of note happens this week other than Justin passing Stefan for eighth. Kyle stays on top of the GDF for a third straight ranking. Seamus jumps up to third while Nathan falls out of the top as he concentrates on his skating career. Nick enters the top ten.

If all goes well, BUSH will be back for Saturday and VRH on Sunday. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.