The rain didn’t stick around very long. It was right back to bright sun in Burton Saturday. It was sunny in our hearts as well, because we had our beloved enigmatic legendary goaltender Lyle Detta back in the fold. He was originally scheduled to do battle against Golden Joe Leonard, but Joe had one good, putrid whiff of the goaltending equipment that had suffered through yesterday’s downpour, and thus switched places with Seamus. Quite understandable; the condition of the BUSH goaltending equipment is already rather poor, and yesterday’s storm only served to amplify the stench of mildew, sweat, and miscellaneous anaerobic bacteria.

K.J. bailing on the session meant we were left with a 3-on-2 arrangement. Rather than going 2-on-2 with a sub, the crew stayed 3-on-2 the entire session, and, oddly enough, it actually worked. Series 1 would pair Lee and Kyle with Seamus against Nathan, Justin and Joe with Lyle. This would prove to be a rather even series with Seamus’ goaltending being the difference (as is usually the case lately). Game 2 looked to be a bit lopsided at first, with Lee and Kyle going up 4-1 before letting Team Lyle all the way back in. Justin and Nathan both hit posts on what looked like winning shots, and Team Seamus would finally put the set away. Kyle let Lee do most of the shooting in this series, as he stuck to defending the three-man onslaught led by Joe, who left a much better impression today on skates than his first venture earlier this year. Mr. Leonard was right back at his usual level of excellence.

Series 2 would be the most lopsided affair of the day, as putting Nathan, Lee and Joe on a three-man team was too much today. Lee was highly motivated after what he considered two subpar sessions this week, and was on fire all day. Combine that with Joe’s aggressive forecheck and the constant, relentless steal-and-feed of Nathan, and it was too much for Kyle, Justin and Seamus to handle. It was far more even in the final series, which took BUSH well into the 5 o’clock hour for the first time all season. Lee and Justin teamed up with Seamus to do battle against Kyle, Joe, Nathan and Lyle. Each game was back-and-forth with both sides winning games and taking turns controlling play throughout the frame. It really helped that Lee actually began winning faceoffs in this series; before Game 5, he was 0-for-10 on the day. It was goals off of faceoff win that helped Team Seamus win the first game 5-3, but the Kyle-Joe-Nathan axis came back to take the final two games by the same scores.

Well, as far as 3-on-2 goes, that’s probably as good as you can get it. A decent session; people were quite happy to be back out in the sun.

Note: There are 150 pictures from today’s session; far too many to hold just on this page. To view the entire collection of photos, go here.

Lee came back at full strength today after yesterday’s off session. He would take the day with 18G-9A-56 shots. Tying for second with strong performances of their own were Kyle and Joe, both at 13G-11A. This is a career-best session for Joe on skates. Nathan had a big 14 assists. In goal, Seamus was solid-if-not-spectacular at .795, although the final series saw him completely rob shooters on numerous occasions. He also heavily outsaved Lyle 116-64 today. At .711, Lyle probably needed one more brew about 30 minutes earlier to get going.

Here are the game scores:
Lee Kyle Seamus def. Nathan Justin Joe Lyle 5-3 5-4
Nathan Lee Joe Lyle def. Kyle Justin Seamus 5-2 5-3
Kyle Joe Nathan Lyle def. Lee Justin Seamus 3-5 5-3 5-3

Faceoff stats:
Kyle Grenier 22/34 (64.71%)
Nathan Robson 5/8 (62.50%)
Justin Gordon 12/21 (57.14%)
Joe Leonard 7/18 (38.89%)
Lee Orr 6/23 (26.09%)

Season Stats: Kyle’s scoring lead shrinks a tad; he leads Lee 363-341. Seamus needs three points for 200. Nathan ties Pat for fourth. Oliver notches another 100-point season and passes Troy for eighth. Jordan needs six for 100. Kyle is the first player over 200 goals this season. Stefan passes Seamus for fourth in goals. Oliver reaches 50 goals; Nathan is almost there. Kyle is closing in on Lee for the assist lead, 172-156. Nathan picks up his 100th assist of the year. Stefan and Barlow move to seventh and eighth in assists. Kyle passes 1,000 shots on the year. It’s taken him less than seven weeks to do so. Barlow falls out of the top five in shooting percentage. Seamus takes the lead in saves from Dom and needs 129 for 1,000. Alex passes 500. Lee is the third person to play 100 games this season; Nathan needs four more. Justin passes Dom for fifth; Oliver ties Dom for sixth. Alex passes Joe for fourth in goalie star points.

On the All-Time Front: Bernie needs twelve points for 1,100. Catching up to him are the two players battling for 1,000. Kyle has closed the gap to Justin down to 981-975. Joern needs four points for 700. Ryan passes Robert for 18th in points. Jordan Barlow becomes the 24th player with 200 points; Sam needs 16. Lee needs two goals for 1,100. Oliver needs nine goals for 700; Stefan twelve. Ryan needs 14 goals for 200. Stefan is six assists behind Lorne for fifth. Justin needs ten assists for 500. Joern needs four assists for 400. Oliver passes 3,500 shots. Stefan passes Lorne for third in shots on goal. Jordan plummets from first to fourth in all-time shooting percentage; Robert Rogers reclaims the all-time lead. Seamus falls to fifth in save percentage behind Terryn and K.J. Joern becomes the sixth goalie with 3,000 saves and is 87 behind Justin for fifth. Lee becomes the third player to play 700 games. Seamus is one game played behind Lorne for fourth. Ryan needs eight games for 200. Sam plays his 100th game. Joern ties Bron for fourth in games goaltended. Seamus passes Shem for eighth in games goaltended. Seamus passes Nathan for third in points scored from goal. Seamus passes Lorne for second in total star points; Kyle is 15 points behind Oliver for sixth. Seamus is 110 saves behind Shem for seventh. Justin becomes the eighth player with 30 career 15-pointers. Sam and Joe each record their second-ever 15-pointers. Kyle has an astonishing 25 in a row-and that`s all since August. Ryan and Stefan each have three in a row. Kyle ties Stefan for third in 20-pointers with 25 and is two behind Lorne for second. Sam records his second 20-pointer; Ryan and Joe both have their first! Kyle has six 20-pointers in a row, the second-longest streak ever. Stefan’s streak ends at two. Kyle has three ten-goal sessions in a row. Joe records his second career ten-goal session. Kyle passes Stefan and ties Seamus for third in ten-assisters with 19. Kyle also extends his consecutive ten-assister record to seven. Sam records his second ten-assister, and Joe has his first one ever. Stefan`s ten-assister streak ends at two. Seamus’ 18th 80-saver ties him with Shem and Justin for fifth all-time. He is the second goalie to ever record ten in a row; Alex has four in a row. Both Alex and Seamus have four straight 90-savers; Lyle’s streak ends at four. Seamus ties Lyle for sixth in 100-savers with eight (including four in a row); Alex’s 100-saver streak ends at three. (The 100-saver streak record is five, held by Nathan and Bron.) Seamus ties Bron’s all-time record set last May of three straight 110-savers. Alex’s 130-saver streak ends at two. Dominik’s consecutive session streak ends at 15, meaning that the longest active streaks in Burton Hockey now belong to Justin and Kyle at eight apiece. Bernie’s streak goes to seven; Stefan’s to six, Seamus and Lee’s to five. Kyle’s 207 goals this season rank fifth all-time for individual seasons. Kyle records the fifth 1,000-shot season ever. Seamus’ 85 goalie star points rank sixth all-time for individual seasons.

SDF/GDF: Kyle and Lee remain 1-2 on the SDF, but the entire chart below them was thrown into flux as a plethora of VRH players went back over the minimum session requirement. Leading the charge is the surprising Sam, whose win today puts his rating over 100. Co-winner Ryan also moves up into the top six. With Kyle and Shem both falling below the goaltending minimum on the GDF, that meant the top of the ranking was completely up for grabs today. Seamus did just enough today to give himself the lead over Joe; his 17th career time topping the charts.

Another huge day on both sides of the mountains. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section. You can find three new records listed as of today in the All-Time section (points scored by goaltenders all-time, goals scored by goaltenders in Burton Hockey, and points scored by goaltenders in a session).