BUSH snuck one in through the grey wetness today. Looking for one last skating session before Friday’s big to-do, the crew was raring to go Wednesday. BUSH sweaters would finally be arriving later that day; just a bit late for today’s session. There was a bit of an issue around goaltending today; the erstwhile Pilly was once again scheduled to debut, but backed out again. In a last-minute panic, Lee Orr drove to Lyle Detta’s house on a wing and prayer. What do you know- success! It would be 3-on-3 today featuring six skaters from this Friday’s BUSH DecaSession roster alongside Lyle and Noel Ballard. With everyone excited about hockey at the moment, the excitement was added to with some more great news. The anonymous BUSH legend scheduled to join the team on Friday would be bringing his own special guest for the mix-and-match sessions on Saturday. As well, the crew was overjoyed to hear about the enlistment of VRH original and Nakusp native Tony Sivilay for the game on Friday. Not only is Tony Siv an awesome guy to be around, but his presence on the VRH squad ensures that both teams have the same amount of players. Adding to the reunion feel, Karl and Mitch Detta dropped by to observe the early proceedings of the session, and, in a shocker, visiting at the end of session was long-lost Burton Hockey original Mitch Peterson. We’ll see Mitch Detta in action Saturday; might we see Mitch Peterson play for the first time since 2003 on Monday?

Nakusp was grey and overcast, and it was raining all day over Mount Ingersoll, which was barely visible at any point all day. In Burton, however, there was merely three minutes of extremely light drizzle at the end of Game 1. The rest of the day, while windy, was perfect hockey weather. It just goes to show once again that you can’t judge the weather in Burton until you’re actually there. Definitely a good omen for the DecaSession. (Of course, if we wind up in Fauquier, it’s indicative of nothing!). Game 1, in fact, started in the sun as Lyle backed Lee, Graeme and Justin against Seamus’ squad of Andy, Noel and Kyle. Lyle started hot out of the gate, and despite Kyle and Andy’s best efforts (Andy had 13 shots), Team Lyle began to run away and took the first game 5-3. Seamus did outsave Lyle 25-23; both goalies were fantastic. Justin had three assists in this game to reach the hallowed 1,000-point plateau, earning a round of fist-bumps from the gang. As the wind moved in, Game 2 would not be so close, as Lyle stood on his head and his team did the required legwork, outshooting Team Seamus 18-8 and winning easily 5-1, Seamus looking rather lost.

It would be incumbent to split up the on-fire duo of Graeme and Justin, who were running away in the scoring column together. Sticks-in-the-middle would result in three Faint cousins (Lee, Graeme, Andy) and two sons of the Emerald Isle (Andy, Seamus); the situation lending itself to the resulting team name ‘Faintly Irish’. Faintly Irish would be taking on Kyle, Lyle, Noel and Justin. Initially, Faintly Irish came out strong with two quick goals, but then got stomped by Team Lyle, who scored ten consecutive goals on Seamus to take the series 5-2, 5-0. Lyle’s run of excellence put him at .903 after this series; Seamus was struggling to hold onto .785. This series also helped ensure a session scoring win for Justin regardless of what anyone else might do, although Kyle did get to within a point midway through Game 4.

For the final series, Kyle, Lee, Noel and Lyle battled Andy, Seamus, Justin and Graeme. The first game was close, but Lyle’s session turned for the worse here. Just as he rose to .900, he fell back over the course of the series. After a hard-fought 5-4 Game 5 win, it was relatively smooth sailing from Andy, Graeme and Justin, as the tic-tac-toes became routine from here on in. Andy showed off the scoring touch that he displayed Saturday, Graeme was a dominant physical presence, and Justin was just plain smooth. Despite Grenier’s furious battling and end-to-end skating, Seamus was back on his game and stopped the Quebecois over and over again. The last two games weren’t close (5-1, 5-2).

With that, we now head into the DecaSession. Lee Orr is busy assembling the trophy (the Burton Cup) that will be given to the winner of the big VRH-BUSH battle; a most unique design that will have everyone buzzing.

Justin played his best hockey of the season today. As even-handed as ever, he notched 12G-12A-24P today to take first star. Kyle seemed to be saddled with both goalies when they slumped today; he still pulled out second star with 10G-9A-19P. Recovering nicely from Saturday, Graeme returned to form with 10G-8A-18P. Andy was also impressive, especially in the first game and the final series, garnering another 15-pointer today with 9G-7A-16P. In goal, both goalie battled the puck. It seemed like Lyle would run away after four games, and .903, but Seamus clawed his way back and ground out a good result. Lyle took the save percentage win, .814-.810; Seamus faced more shots all day and had 115 saves to Lyle’s 92. Noel was uncharacteristically off on faceoffs today.

Here are the game scores:
Lyle Lee Graeme Justin def. Seamus Andy Noel Kyle 5-3 5-1
Kyle Lyle Noel Justin def. Faintly Irish (Andy Lee Graeme Seamus) 5-2 5-0
Andy Seamus Justin Graeme def. Kyle Lee Noel Lyle 5-4 5-1 5-2

Faceoff Stats:
Kyle Grenier 11/17 (64.71%)
Lee Orr 15/24 (62.50%)
Graeme Orr 2/4 (50.00%)
Justin Gordon 10/23 (43.48%)
Andy Kieran 6/14 (42.86%)
Noel Ballard 2/10 (20.00%)

Season Stats: Kyle leads Lee 423-383 going into the DecaSession; who knows what the difference will be after this weekend? Justin jumps past Oliver and Nathan into sixth place, just two points behind Stefan. Noel passes Tony for 17th, and Graeme passes him for 18th. Andy enters the top 25. Kyle has a commanding 60-goal lead on Lee, who needs 16 for 200. Justin passes Seamus for fifth and needs 13 to tie Stefan for fourth. Lee sits on 199 assists for the season, 17 ahead of Kyle. Justin ties Oliver for sixth and is three behind Pat for fifth. Justin passes Stefan for fifth in shots on goal; Graeme enters the top ten. Seamus has a 116-save lead over Dom heading into the DecaSession. Lyle enters the top ten in saves. Justin ties Bernie for fifth in games played. Lyle picks up his first shutout of the year. Seamus ties Lee for second in total star points. Graeme falls behind Pat into third in shooting percentage.

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 18 points for 2,100. Justin becomes the eighth player to score 1,000 points in Burton Hockey. Graeme is 14 points behind Joern for tenth. Kyle needs four goals to become the sixth to reach 600. Justin is 21 goals behind K.J. for seventh. Lee is 31 assists away from 1,000. Justin becomes the seventh player with 500 assists and the sixth member of the 500-500 club. Lee passes 5,500 shots on goal. Kyle needs 104 shots on goal for 3,000. Justin is 25 shots on goal behind Bernie for seventh. Graeme needs 120 shots for 2,000. Lyle is 157 saves behind Shem for eighth. Justin is one game played behind Joern for sixth. Lyle ties Seamus for fifth in shutouts with eight. Kyle is ten three-star points behind Oliver for fifth. Seamus passes Laird for fourth in goalie star points and is 15 behind Justin for third. Kyle is five points behind Stefan for fifth in total star points. Lee records his 80th 15-pointer. Kyle is three 15-pointers behind Seamus for fourth; Justin ties Seamus for seventh. Andy has 15-pointers in each of his first two sessions. Kyle has an astounding 28 consecutive 15-pointers; Justin has three in a row. Justin ties Pat for seventh in 20-pointers at 15; Kyle’s 20-pointer streak ends at eight, the second-longest streak ever. Kyle posts his sixth ten-goal session in a row. Justin passes Pat for sixth in ten-assisters with twelve. Seamus passes Laird for third in .800 sessions with 21; he has two .810s in a row. Seamus records his 20th 80-saver and 12th in a row. Lyle now has 18 and moves into sixth all-time. Lyle and Seamus both pass Dom to move to sixth in 90-savers with 13. Seamus has six 90-savers in a row which is tied with Alex’s current streak for the second-longest streak ever, one behind Shem. Seamus sets a new record with six consecutive 100-save sessions; he has ten all-time. He ties Laird for fourth in 110-savers with eight and sets a new record with five in a row. Kyle plays his eleventh consecutive session, Seamus and Lee their eighth. With 385 points this season, Lee bests his 2006 mark as the fifth-highest scoring season ever. Lee’s 199 assists so far this year rank third-most in a single campaign. Seamus’ 1,165 saves this season is the fifth-highest save total ever recorded for a single season. He’s 30 saves out of third.

SDF/GDF: Pat holds the top of the SDF for the 42nd time overall. The big mover is Andy; his impressive start now has him all the way up to sixth. Justin’s win today brings him up to seventh. Stefan, Terryn and Sam drop two each; Seamus plummets as he concentrates on goal. Over on the GDF, Seamus was good today, but it takes great to stay number one, and he narrowly hands back the lead to Taylor. Lyle moves up two spots to sixth; Nick’s inactivity drops him from fifth to 13th.

The DecaSession is here! When this Easter is over, there will be so many sessions, statistics, news articles and photos to explore that your head will explode. There’s never been anything like it; not remotely. Check in all weekend for the goods (assuming I actually get time to upload that monstrosity!). Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.