With the daylight savings time change this past weekend, BUSH is now back in the window of opportunity for evening sessions. This will also help get the 9-to-5ers and school-age players back onto the court. Friday would be the first such session this year (3:30 pm departure time), featuring a cozy line-up of eight players with a 20-year age gap between the oldest (Lyle Detta) and the youngest (Mitch Zorn, returning for 2010 and fresh off a 5th-place at the provincial midget championships); a weekday line-up that could not be possible during the day. Taylor Reitmeier was also back as he looked to take over the all-time goaltending lead today. Throw in Burton mainstay Mitch Detta, and half of today’s line-up was still in high school. We would be without Nathan Robson today; it turns out he suffered a separated shoulder in Saturday’s session (being Nathan, he then played three more games anyway).

Terryn Stenseth Wardrobe Watch: Aviators, red Jeff Gordon T-shirt, green-yellow-white Bermuda shorts.

Since Lyle wouldn’t be available until 4:30, Seamus would play the first game in goal. It was the Veterans versus the Youth in Game 1, 3-on-2, and it wasn’t pretty. Even with just two skaters, Kyle and Lee overran their opponents rather quickly, outshooting them 14-6. Kyle pointed out, and Seamus posted shutout #3 on the season. By this point, Lyle was back from work, and he stepped in goal to relieve Seamus, who was more than happy to end the day at 1.000 even if it didn’t count for an entire session. Lyle would back Lee, Seamus and Mitch Zorn. Facing them would be the speedy squad of Kyle, Terryn and Mitch Detta, backed by Taylor. Team Lyle started hot with two goals but was ultimately worn down by the relentless attack of Grenier, who pointed out again in a 5-2 victory. Lyle was heroic in defeat, however, stopping 25 of 30. Taylor was just a smidge better, though, and that was the difference. Kyle will soon become the first non-original to score 1,000 points, but he achieved a unique Burton Hockey first in Game 2- he fired a slapshot so hard it actually went through the steel cage mesh surrounding the rink. The speed of his crew was too much, and Game 3 was a 5-1 rout, bringing Lyle back down to Earth. Taylor was nearly impenetrable here.

With Kyle and Seamus already tired and Taylor having to get back home, two more games were played to cap the day off. Lee, Seamus and Terryn with would face Kyle, the Mitches and Taylor. Taylor was the difference in Game 4 as his firm goaltending allowed Kyle and Mitch Detta plenty of breakaways en route to a 5-2 win; it was nearly a shutout before Team Lyle scored two late goals. Game 5 was the only game all day that had balance, as the game went back-and-forth with Lee and Terryn grinding away points to counter the tic-tac-toes of Kyle and the Mitches, but Team Taylor would win again 5-4 to take the series.

A quick session today that only lasted 2h20min. Very encouraging to see the new generation of Burton stars in full force today. A funny note: more than half of the faceoffs today were Terryn versus Mitch Zorn. Juding by the faceoff stats, it wasn’t an even matchup! Of course, Mitch would equal Terryn on the scoresheet, so I think he didn’t mind losing a few faceoffs.

Once again, there are too many photos for this page to hold. To view the entire collection from today, go here. And if you haven't seen the latest Burton Hockey video, you can find it at the bottom of the page.

A rather controlling performance from Kyle Grenier today, with four point-outs in the five games for 14G-8A. No one else could crack the 15-point barrier (or score more than five goals); the closest was Lee (5G-9A). Mitch Detta had a strong finish to take third at 5G-6A, denying Mitch Zorn his first career three-star placing by a point. In goal, the first half of the day was pretty even between Taylor and Lyle, but it was Taylor who was able to hold up through the entire session to finish at .837. He has yet to falter in his Burton Hockey career (.849; .842; .837), and one could argue at this point that he might be the best goalie we’ve seen. Lyle started strong, faded in the middle, and came back in Game 5 to wind up at .753; a big improvement over Saturday as he continues to shake off the rust.

Here are the game scores:
Veterans (Lee Kyle Seamus) def. Youth (Mitch D Mitch Z Terryn Taylor) 5-0
Kyle Mitch D Terryn Taylor def. Lee Seamus Mitch Z Lyle 5-2 5-1
Kyle Mitch D Mitch Z Taylor def. Lyle Lee Seamus Terryn 5-2 5-4

Faceoff stats:
Terryn Stenseth 19/22 (86.36%)
Seamus O’Connor 5/6 (83.33%)
Kyle Grenier 3/6 (50.00%)
Mitchell Detta 1/3 (33.33%)
Lee Orr 1/5 (20.00%)
Mitch Zorn 2/20 (10.00%)

Season Stats: Kyle now lies just 15 points away from a second-consecutive 400-point season. No player in history has two 400-point seasons. Seamus is the third player this year with 200 points. Mitch Detta enters the top 20. Seamus is one goal behind Stefan for fourth. Lee needs 19 assists for 200; Terryn enters the top 15 in assists. Mitch Detta falls behind Troy and Lee to sixth in shooting percentage. Taylor ranks third in season save percentage behind Kyle and Shem. Seamus put a little tiny extra gap in his save lead over Dom, 877-813; this lead should go away after the VRH session tomorrow. Taylor enters the top ten in saves. Seamus joins Alex and Dom as goaltenders with three shutouts this season. Taylor ties Alex and Bron for sixth in goalie star points. Mitch Detta falls behind Lee into fourth in GPG. Seamus passes Terryn and Mitch Detta for fifth in shots-per-game. Taylor debuts fifth in saves-per-game.

On the All-Time Front: Kyle has passed Justin for seventh in all-time scoring. Now he looks to become the first non-original player to score 1,000 career points. At 997, it could happen as early as the next game. Mitch Detta is just one point behind Laird for 12th and needs 19 for 500. Terryn becomes the 24th player with 200. Lee is the first player with 1,100 goals. Mitch Detta needs five goals for 300. Terryn needs three for 100. Mitch Detta passes Pat and Troy for 15th in assists. Seamus is within 100 shots on goal of Lorne for fourth. Taylor crosses the eligibility line for all-time goaltending and, to the surprise of no one, takes the all-time lead at .843, well ahead of now-second-place Shem. Seamus’ six-shot shutout is just enough to nudge brother K.J. out of the top five. Seamus is 104 saves behind Shem for seventh all-time; Lyle is Lyle is 145 behind Seamus for eighth. Seamus passes Lorne for fourth in games played; Mitch Detta passes Bron to enter the top 15. Seamus passes Lyle for sixth in shutouts with eight. Kyle ties Oliver for sixth in total star points. Taylor narrowly debuts first in saves-per-games over Terryn; Seamus is thus pushed down to sixth. Kyle becomes the fifth player with 40 15-pointers; he has 26 in a row. Mitch Detta and Seamus both have 15-pointer streaks end at three. With 26 20-pointers, Kyle is one behind Lorne for second all-time; Kyle’s seven in a row is now the second-longest streak ever (the top three streaks- Pat 13, Kyle 7, Andrew Smart 6- are all active). Kyle has four ten-goal sessions in a row; Mitch Detta’s streak ends at three. Kyle’s record streak of ten-assisters ends at seven; Seamus’ streak ends at two. Taylor has three .830 sessions in a row, and already has as many career .830 sessions as such notable goalies as Dominik, Joern, Lorne, Terryn, and Joe Leonard. His .840 streak does end at two, however; so does his 90-saver streak. Kyle has played nine consecutive sessions; Seamus and Lee, six. With Justin at a writing seminar in New York this week, his consecutive session streak ends at eight. Kyle’s 385 points so far this season ranks as the fourth-highest scoring campaign ever. His 221 goals are also fourth-best. Lee’s 181 assists are fifth-best in a season. Kyle’s 1,038 shots on goal are the third-highest total ever recorded. Kyle’s 220 three-star points tie his mark from last year as the third-highest season total ever, as do his 235 total star points.

SDF/GDF: These rankings won’t be final until after VRH’s session tomorrow, so this will change. As of now, Kyle increases his lead with a strong performance as Terryn falls to seventh from fourth and Seamus also drops a spot. VRH now has three players in the top, and both Sam and Stefan are in action tomorrow (and possibly Pat, which would mean any of those three could challenge for the top spot). On the GDF, Taylor’s hot run put him dethrones Seamus from top spot, putting Taylor on top for the fourth time overall in his young career. Lyle moves to eighth from 15th.

VRH is ready to go at 11:00 tomorrow morning at Ambleside Park. Come back tomorrow night to see the results. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.