DecaSession, Day Two. After the epic battle of Friday, Saturday would be all about fun. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t team competition today. Everyone was sore, but not sore enough to not play. Most of the VRH crew was based out of Fauquier this weekend, and had a fun night of conversation, NHL-hockey-watching, YouTube, and most of all, amazing Lam family spaghetti sauce. The BUSH crew was more dispersed and simply used the evening to rest. When everyone gathered back at John McCormack Park at 11:30 Saturday morning, we were once again enveloped in clouds threatening to pour down on us. A few players from yesterday would not return today (Bron, Joe C., K.J., Colby) but they were replaced by goaltending wunderkind/all-time save percentage leader Taylor Reitmeier, Burton mainstay Mitch Detta, and Golden Joe Leonard. The spectators were back, and so was the barbecue.

Shem went back to skates, and Seamus donned the BUSH-themed mask to ensure four goaltenders today. As such, there were 24 players, and each goalie participated in a draft to make teams of six:
Team Laird:Laird Bilinski, Kyle Grenier, Sam Lam, Tony Sivilay, Nathan Robson, Mitch Detta
Team Taylor:Taylor Reitmeier, Lee Orr, Tony Hajdu, Graeme Orr, Rob Hajdu, Shem Hanna
Team Dom:Dominik Voser, Lorne Bilinski, Stefan Klopp, Jordan Downey, Joern Hornhardt, Bernie Koth-Kappus
Team Seamus:Seamus O’Connor, Oliver Koth-Kappus, Justin Gordon, Andrew Watson, Joe Leonard, Andy Kieran

Very interestingly, only two team was really ‘mixed’ between the two leagues (Laird and Taylor) as people tended to draft the people they were familiar with. It would be a round-robin format followed by 1-vs.-4 and 2-vs.-3 semi-finals, a consolation final, and a gold medal final, ensuring all teams got five games in. The games would be played 3-on-3, in the hopes that that would shorten the length of the games. That absolutely did not happen. The first game went into the forties of minutes, as Team Laird massively outshout Team Dom 44-25 for a 5-2; Dom playing out of his mind in a valiant effort to keep his all-VRH squad (still wearing their VRH sweaters) alive. Laird took a rock in the eye from one of brother Lorne’s shots. Next up was Team Seamus versus Team Taylor in another long battle featuring excellent goaltending; Team Taylor would take it 5-2 over the team that would wear BUSH sweaters all day (Oliver took Grenier’s 88, leading to chant of ‘Ollie Ollie Ocho Ocho!’.

The second batch of matchups saw the quickest games of the day. Pitting the two teams with losses against each other, the Seamus-Dom match only had 24 shots total. Once again, Dom was called upon to bail out his tired team as Team Seamus cruised to a 5-2 win. In the Taylor/Laird match-up of the teams that had won their first bout, shots were relatively even (17-15 Taylor), but the effective cycling of the team with two sibling pairings got Laird down early, and this game also ended 5-2. It was the first crack seen in any goaltender’s armour all weekend. The Orrs and Hajdus put two brother pairings known for grinding out results together, and Shem rose to the occasion with snipes of his own. Throw in the best goaltender Burton Hockey has yet seen (although Sam Lam will remind you of his 1.000 save percentage. By the way, he’s never goaltending again!), and it’s easy to see why Team Taylor ran through the round robin undefeated, smashing Team Dom 5-1 in the next game. Team Dom was outshot 29-9, and the frustration at the end of the game was evident, especially from Bernie as he slammed a beer bottle forcefully onto the ground. A funny note: Oliver and Bernie accidentally put on each other’s uniforms for over 25 minute before realising it. We thought Bernie’s shirt looked a little more sung than usual! The final round robin was another rout for Team Seamus as the Irishman stood tall in net while the ragtag workhorse team he assembled (Justin-Oliver-Watty-Joe-Andy) ground down the speedy combination of Kyle-Sam-Tony Siv-Mitch for a mild upset as Laird fell below .800 for the first time all weekend.

Laird was visibly aching all through the previous game, and he decided not to continue in favour of the other goaltending his team possessed, Nathan. Kyle had a surprisingly low (for him) ten points through four games, and needed to point out the game in order to finish the day at 15 and keep his mammoth 15-pointer streak alive. Well, you can guess what happened. Kyle pointed out and got his 15. Sam had three points of his own and won three key faceoffs, and Nathan showed goaltending rust whatsoever as they would win 5-2 and send Team Dom home winless on the day. This left the final. In their round-robin matchup, Team Taylor beat Team Seamus in a match that featured even play but not an even score. Team Taylor and run the table in the round robin and cruised through its semi, so it seemed that this match would be rather short when they went up 4-1 early, battling through a perverse combination of thick cloud on one side of the rink, bright sunshine to the west, and giant wind gusts that blew clouds of dust and leaves onto the rink. It was right then that the rain that had amazingly stayed away all weekend came. Hard. An omen from the hockey gods that the session was at a close. Team Seamus slowly battled and never lost heart, as Joe would set up three goals in this game that clocked in at 43 minutes. The crowd of spectators had moved inside the concession hall to watch from shelter (and get in some barbecuing). The rink was soaked as the team battled on, but the rain couldn’t refresh Team Taylor long enough the cash in one more goal. Each team had 44 shots on goal, but Seamus made one more save, and that was the difference. When Joe Leonard sent home an Andy Kieran pass, gloves and sticks were thrown into the air in jubilant celebration as Team Seamus pulled off the upset and claimed the DecaSession team tournament title. For Seamus, Andy, Andrew, and Justin, this meant tournament victories two days in a row.

After 30 minutes of celebration inside the concession with grilled meat, some of the gang hit the hot springs (you can’t come all the way from Vancouver and not see the springs!) and then had dinner at the Kuskanax Lodge before everyone gathered back at Justin and Graeme for the after-party. A vicious three-way Nerf-gun war was had between Oliver, Rob and Stefan, and poor Dom couldn’t even get a victory in foosball! Joe Chwachka and Jackson Hewer came by to greet everyone. A perfect way to end a brilliant weekend that shall live on forever in our friendships.

Do you have photos or video of this weekend’s events? Did you find some excellent DecaSession footage on Facebook or Flickr? Is your camera full of hockey hi-jinks and after-party lunacy? We’d love to put them up on BurtonHockey.com. There were thousands of photos taken this weekend, and we’d love to get them all in one place. Send absolutely everything you can find to kylekusch [at] yahoo.ca and we’ll try and get them up this week. You can view the collection You can view the collection here.

It was a story of two goaltenders today, although we have to give big props to Dom, whose team was outshot by 40 in the round robin. He persevered for 115 saves and a great .821 session, keeping his team in games longer than they should have been in them. It came down to one goal, but Taylor just squeezed out Seamus today, .887-.885; the first time two goaltenders have been at .885 or more in the same session. Seamus led in saves today with 116, and Taylor showed once again why he is tops all-time. Laird was just too sore at the end; his .795 might be considered disappointing considering his mammoth session yesterday, but probably doesn’t mind as he went .846 for the weekend and backstopped a victorious BUSH squad in all eight Fuller Cup games. Nathan’s lone game in goal today was his usual brilliance at .867. Lee had been leading the scoring all day, but Kyle’s last-minute point-out got him into a tie for first at 15 points apiece. The two just edged out Tony Hajdu and Justin, who finished at 14. Justin led the day in goals with 11, and tournament-winning goal scorer Joe Leonard led the day in assists with 9 alongside Rob Hajdu. Remember that this weekend’s play is considered interleague, so if you want to see stats for the overall weekend, just sort the 2010 stats by ‘Interleague’. Congratulations go out to Kyle Grenier and Taylor Reitmeier for being the leading scorer and goaltender, respectively.

Here are the game scores:

Round Robin
Team Laird def. Team Dom 5-2
Team Taylor def. Team Seamus 5-2
Team Seamus def. Team Dom 5-2
Team Taylor def. Team Laird 5-2
Team Taylor def. Team Dom 5-1
Team Seamus def. Team Laird 5-2

Semi-Finals
Team Taylor def. Team Dom 5-1
Team Seamus def. Team Laird 5-2

Consolation Final
Team Nathan (Team Laird) def. Team Dom 5-2
Final
Team Seamus def Team Taylor 5-4

Faceoff Stats:
Graeme Orr 4/4 (100.00%)
Jordan Downey 2/2 (100.00%)
Rob Hajdu 5/8 (62.50%)
Andy Kieran 5/8 (62.50%)
Andrew Watson 3/5 (60.00%)
Stefan Klopp 10/17 (58.82%)
Mitchell Detta 4/7 (57.14%)
Justin Gordon 8/15 (53.33%)
Kyle Grenier 3/3 (50.00%)
Tony Hajdu 2/2 (50.00%)
Nathan Robson 1/1 (50.00%)
Sam Lam 5/11 (45.45%)
Lee Orr 5/11 (45.45%)
Shem Hanna 2/5 (40.00%)
Joern Hornhardt 2/5 (40.00%)
Tony Sivilay 2/6 (33.33%)
Lorne Bilinski 2/8 (25.00%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 1/4 (25.00%)
Joe Leonard 0/4 (0.00%)

Season Stats: Coming out of the DecaSession, Kyle now leads Lee 462-415. Seamus has passed Pat for third, 232-230. Justin has moved past Stefan for fifth, 188-185. K.J. passes Jordan Barlow for ninth; Bernie has passed Troy for tenth. Graeme needs one point for 100; Sam three. Lee needs one goal for 200. Stefan passes 100 but is only three ahead of Justin, 101-98, for fourth. Kyle reaches 1,300 shots on goal; Lee needs 48 for 1,000; Seamus goes over 500 and passes Pat for third. K.J. falls from the top ten in shooting percentage. Taylor takes the lead in save percentage at .856 over Kyle and Shem. Laird passes Joe Leonard for fifth at .832. Seamus holds a 1,281-1,256 lead in saves over Dom. Bron passes Joe for fifth in saves. Seamus, Kyle and Lee lead the games played race (145-142-137). Nathan passes 100; Justin and Bernie need four each, Oliver seven, Dom nine, and Stefan eleven. Shem ties Seamus and Dom for second in shutouts with three; Laird now has two. Lee becomes the second player with 200 three-star and total star points this year after Kyle; Seamus sits at 195 total star points. Seamus moves to fifth in PPG as everyone who played took giant hits in per-game categories this weekend. Lee and Mitch drop to fourth and fifth in GPG, bringing Troy up to third. Kyle falls from third to fifth in APG behind Seamus and Pat. Kyle falls below 10.00 shots per game; Mitch falls below 7.00 as does Seamus. Seamus passes Bron for fifth in saves-per-game. Taylor’s.887 and Seamus’ .885 today are the fourth- and fifth-best sessions in goal this season. Laird’s 165 saves yesterday were the fourth-highest total of the year, as was his 1033 PPS.

On the All-Time Front: Ready? Take a breath… Lee becomes the first player to pass 2,100 points. Oliver needs nine points for 1,800. Stefan needs seven for 1,300. Kyle is 36 points behind Bernie for sixth. Joern passes 700 points; Graeme needs one for the same and is two behind Joern for tenth. Mitch passes Laird for 13th and needs 13 for 500. Joe Chwachka passes Robert Rogers for 19th. Lorne needs 23 goals for 900. Stefan is eight goals ahead of Oliver for third. Kyle becomes the sixth player with 600 goals; Joern becomes the twelfth player with 300. Mitch needs two goals for 300. Rob reaches 100 goals. Oliver needs 13 assists for 1,100; Lee needs 14 for 1,000. Seamus needs 14 assists for 700. Stefan leads Lorne for fifth 581-574. Joern needs one assist for 400. Mitch needs eleven for 200 and is four behind Ben for 15th. Stefan passes the 3,500-shot mark; Lorne needs 22 to do the same. Kyle needs 25 shots to become the sixth player with 3,000 shots on goal. Graeme needs 54 shots for 2,000. Joe Chwachka passes 750 shots. Taylor’s all-time leading save percentage mark is up to an amazing .854. Seamus narrowly passes Kyle to move into third, just behind Shem, at .833. Laird passes Nathan for first in all-time saves and becomes the first goalie with 4,000. Taylor enters the top 20 in saves. In his final round-robin game today, Oliver achieved immortality by becoming the first player to play 1,000 games. Bernie is closest at 948. Justin needs 13 games for 600; Joern 15. Laird needs eight games for 500; Graeme needs one for 400; Jordan and Dom enter the top 20. Nathan is seven games goaltended behind Chris for second all-time; he hit 250 today. Bron is close behind at 248; Seamus passes Lyle for seventh with Dom just four behind Lyle. Laird passes Justin for third in shutouts; Shem moves to eighth with seven. Laird becomes the first player with 100 scored from goal; Seamus is closing in rapidly at 90. Seamus becomes the third player with 600 three-star points; Kyle passes Oliver and ties Stefan for fourth at 575. Bron passes Justin for second in goalie star points, 320-310, with Seamus and Laird now at 305. Seamus becomes the second player with 900 career total star points; Kyle passes Stefan for fifth and reaches 600. Joe Chwachka falls behind Dallas to fifth in all-time GPG. Kyle now has the second-highest scoring season of all time at 462 points; Lee’s 415 rank fourth. Not only are they the only players with 400-point seasons, they’ve done it twice in consecutive seasons. Lee’s 216 assists and Kyle’s 199 assists rank third and fourth best in a season ever. Kyle has the second-highest shot total ever at 1,300. Seamus’ 1,286 saves and Dom 1,256 saves are the third- and fourth-highest season totals ever. With Lee moving to 200 three-star points today, he owns the fifth-highest season total of all time; he and Kyle monopolise the top five. Seamus’ 130 goalie star points this year is the third-highest season mark ever.
Kyle’s 15-pointer streak reaches an astronomic 30 consecutive sessions. Justin’s ends at three. Kyle passes Lorne for second in 20-pointers with 28, nine behind Lee. Kyle’s ten-goal session streak ends at seven; Joe Chwachka’s ended at three. Seamus is the third player with 20 ten-assisters. Seamus remains one ahead of Laird for third in .800 sessions and has three in a row. Dom has ten career .800 sessions and back-to-back .820s. Laird had back-to-back .830 sessions before Saturday. Shem has back-to-back .830s. Taylor and Seamus each have four .800s in a row. Seamus is just one .810 session behind Justin and Nathan for the record of 23. Seamus ties Nathan for the lead in .820s with 19; Laird is one behind at 18. Taylor has never been below .837 in his career (four .830s in a row). Shem has back-to-back .830s; he and Bron are tied for fifth in .820s with 15. Shem ties Nathan for second in .830s with 14, three behind Justin. Seamus is at 13, Laird at 12, Bron at 11. Seamus, Shem and Laird are tied for third in .840s. Taylor has his first .850-plus session. Seamus ties Shem for third in .860s with seven, one behind Justin and Nathan and one ahead of Laird and Bron. Seamus is one .870 behind Justin for first with five. Seamus is now sole first place in .880s with five. Liard holds the lead in 80-savers at 26, one more than Bron and Nathan. Seamus ties Chris for fourth with 21, and Dom enters the top ten with 15. Seamus has 13 80-savers in a row, three away from Chris’ all-time record. Dom has four in a row, Bron three. Bron ties Nathan for the lead in 90-savers with 20. Laird ties Justin for third with 17, and Seamus ties Shem for fifth with 14. Seamus also ties Shem for most consecutive 90-savers with seven; Dom has four. Seamus extends his record 100- and 110-saver streaks to seven and six, repsectively. Bron is one behind Nathan for the lead in 110-savers with 17, and passes him for the lead in 110-savers with 13. Laird, Justin and Seamus are third with nine; Dom is at eight. Laird and Bron are one 120-saver behind Nathan for the lead at eight. Bron is one 130-saver behind Dom for the all-time lead with six. Kyle plays his 13th consecutive session; Bernie his eleventh; Stefan, Seamus and Lee their tenth; Oliver his fifth.

SDF/GDF: Kyle takes another three points in Pat’s lead; he’s cut it in half since the start of the DecaSession. And, uh, folks, look who just jumped into third place: the one and only Joe Leonard. This drops Ryan to fifth despite not losing any points. Tony Hajdu jumps three more spots to sixth; Stefan falls three to eighth. Sam moves back into the top twelve. On the GDF, Taylor returns to the top after a one-day interruption from Laird. Seamus is close behind Laird for second.

What a weekend! Thanks to everyone who came, who organised, who took pictures, who watched. Every single one of you made this amazing week happen. The boys will be tired this week, certainly, and next weekend is most likely the next session. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.