Basking in the glow of a warm early-summer day to finish off the May long weekend, BUSH almost didn’t get off the ground today. The session was cancelled at noon, only for Nathan to track down Brad and Shem twenty minutes later and get the session reactivated. They saved the session today, as BUSH geared up for more evenly-balanced 2-on-2. It would be Brad’s first session of the year after making a big impression in his rookie campaign of ’09.

I’ll take this time to congratulate our own Seamus and Roxanne O’Connor on the birth of Aydn Maeve O’Connor Wednesday morning. 7 pounds, 5 ounces; a bouncing baby girl! All of your friends and family in Burton Hockey are happy for you guys!

It was one of the hottest days of the year so far, and the sweat came pouring down in buckets all day. Something was thus tried that for some reason had never happened in eleven seasons: taking the between-game breaks at the picnic table underneath the tree by the concession hall (there a reason I’ve been using it as my stats table for the past half-year). This stroke of genius ensured the gang could cool down in the shade all afternoon, and helped keep them going all session.

The first series saw Kyle, Noel and Nathan go up against Lee, Brad and Shem. Nathan lost the opening faceoff (in fact, he lost his first eleven) and things went slowly with just four goals in twelve minutes. It all changed when a hard dump-in from Nathan caught Brad square in the junk and sent him to the ground. The five-minute break gave everyone new energy in the hot sun, and the rest of the game went rather quickly. The series was quite an even affair, with Team Noel winning a close series 2-1. Nathan was a bit off on his shooting all day, but Kyle more than made up for that. Lee and Brad were a pretty solid team and made some nifty moves in a losing cause. Noel was .803 for the series to Shem’s .784.

Goaltenders were switched for the second series. The games were a bit more lopsided and much quicker than in the first set. Nathan slowly got his groove back and Brad began to tire in his first session back after a few months’ absence. After a 5-2 drubbing, Kyle and Nate came flying back with wins of 5-3 and 5-3. Kyle pointed out both games. After being over .800 all day, Noel fell a bit in Game 6 and would continue to slide; Shem stayed between .770 and .795 all day.

Brad was almost ready to give up the ghost (he had a major bike ride scheduled for the evening and needed whatever energy he had left), but was talked into one more series. He was paired with Kyle and Noel against Lee, Nathan and Shem. Lee and Nathan have really developed a 1-2 punch in the past few sessions, and tonight was no different. They have dubbed one of their trademark 2-on-2 moves the ‘K.J. Killer’ (Norton in the corner lures the opponent in, waits until the opponent is within six feet, then flips it around to Leeroy to send him off. As the opponent moves to catch up to Lee, Nathan comes up the other side and creates a 2-on-1). Even without K.J., they made it work for them today. Brad/Kyle got off to a quick 3-0 lead in Game 7 (including an amazing goal in which Noel carried the ball across centre and passed it to Brad in the top left circle, who shot it across the rink in front of the net to Kyle, who cashed in the easy goal), but Lee/Nathan came back with three goals of their own en route to a 5-4 win as Nathan was finally back in his groove. Brad used what energy he had left to score the first two goals of Game 8, but that was all his team could muster. At 4-2 Team Shem, Kyle (who was dominant all day in the faceoff circle) won the ball from Lee – straight back down the rink to an inattentive Noel, who watched the ball roll in between his legs for the series-winning goal. One of the more infamous goals in history, and perhaps the greatest goal Lee never scored. What a way to end a session! Another fun day, and it’s great to have one of BUSH’s few reliable defensive stalwarts back in the fold in Brad Gibson.

Going to Sun Peaks on Canada Day weekend? Burton Hockey is coming your way for a special session in Kamloops at Heffley Creek. Bring your skates!

Another session, another dominant 4.00 PPG performance from Kyle (25G-7A-91 shots), although Lee was right with him the final two series to finish at 21G-8A-73 shots. Nathan only has seven goals, but threw down a mammoth 20 assists. In his first session since last November, Brad tallied a career-high 11G-12A on 59 shots. The goalies were victims of the furious scoring pace all day. Shem wound up on top .778-.746 over Noel, who would probably want that last series (and especially the last goal) back.

Here are the game scores:
Kyle Nathan Noel def. Lee Brad Shem 5-3 4-5 5-4
Kyle Nathan Shem def. Lee Brad Noel 2-5 5-3 5-2
Nathan Lee Shem def. Kyle Brad Noel 5-4 5-2

Here are the faceoff stats:
Kyle Grenier 28/36 (77.78%)
Brad Gibson 12/30 (40.00%)
Nathan Robson 11/18 (37.93%)
Lee Orr 10/27 (37.04%)

Season Stats: Kyle becomes the second player in history to score 300 points in a season and is 123 away from Lee’s 2009 of 728. Nathan passes 300 points and is just three points behind Pat for third on the year. Stefan passes Seamus for fifth; Oliver passes Seamus for sixth. Bernie passes Graeme to enter the top ten. Noel enters the top 15. Kyle is just nine goals away from a new single-season goalscoring record. Oliver passes Justin for sixth and reaches 100 on the year. Nathan needs eight assists to become the third player to reach 200; Bernie needs nine for 100; Noel enters the top twelve; Shem the top 15. Barklow falls behind Troy to fifth in shooting percentage with Kyle not far behind him. Shem becomes the fourth goalie this season to make 1,000 saves; Noel enters the top ten. Nathan passes Seamus for third in games played; Shem passes 100 and enters the top ten. Marcus enters the top ten in three star points. Dom is just five goalie star points behind Seamus for the season lead of 145. Nathan becomes the seventh player this year with 100 total star points. Kyle falls behind Pat to fifth in APG. Lee passes Troy for third in shots-per-game. Kyle’s 25 goals today ranks third-best for sessions in 2010. Nathan’s 20 assists rank second in sessions this year. Kyle’s 91 shots on goal tie for fifth-best this year.

On the All-Time Front: Oliver needs 28 points for 1,900. Stefan moves past Seamus into fifth in all-time scoring. Kyle becomes the sixth player to score 1,200 points; with Seamus now leaving for the summer for work, expect Kyle to enter the top five sometime this summer. Nathan passes Laird and Mitch Detta to become the 13th player with 500 points. Barlow needs 24 points for 300. Brad needs two points for 100. Lee needs five goals for an amazing 1,200. Kyle becomes the fifth player with 700; he is just 18 behind Oliver for fourth and 32 behind Stefan for third. He also becomes the eighth player with 500 assists. Shem passes Troy and Mitch for 16th in assists; Noel needs seven for 100. Lee needs 111 shots on goal for an astronomic 6,000. Bernie is one goal shy of joining the 500 club. Stefan is just seven shots on goal behind Oliver for second. Kyle passes Seamus to enter the top five in shots. Bernie needs 55 shots for 2,500; Nathan needs 84 for 1,000. Barlow falls behind Jason to fourth in shooting percentage. Dom is just six saves behind Seamus for seventh and needs 154 for 3,000; Shem is just 17 saves behind Dom. Noel enters the top 20 in saves. Bernie is eight games played away from joining Oliver in the 1,000 club. Kyle needs 13 for 400; Shem passes Chris for 13th, and is two games goaltended behind Seamus for ninth. He’s also seven points from goal behind Justin for third. Lee becomes the first player with 1,200 total star points; Shem passes Pat for twelfth at 310. Alex ties K.J. for eleventh in goalie star points at 120. Kyle passes Dallas for fourth in GPG. Kyle’s career shots-per-game average moves over 9.00 for the first time. Kyle’s absurd 15-pointer streak goes to 34. Lee’s goes to eight; Nathan’s to five; Brad’s to three. Lee becomes the first player with 40 20-pointers. Nathan has five in a row; Kyle four; Lee three. Brad pots his first career 20-pointer. Nathan moves to ninth in 25-pointers with four in a row (his career total). Kyle and Nathan are just one 25-pointer away each from tying Pat’s record of five straight. Lee has three in a row. Kyle sets a new Burton record with his fourth-straight 30-pointer; he trails Pat all-time eleven to eight. Kyle becomes the third player in history with 40 ten-goal sessions; he has four in a row. Lee has five in a row; Nathan’s streak ends at four. Lee ties Pat for third in 15-goal sessions with 13. Kyle has four 15-goal sessions in a row; Lee two. Kyle ties Pat for the all-time lead in 20-goal sessions with eight; he also breaks pat’s consecutive 20-goal record with his fourth straight. Lee has back-to-back 20-goal sessions (the only two of his career); he, Kyle and pat are the only ones to do so ever and they’ve all done it this season. Nathan enters the top ten in ten-assisters; he has four in a row. And Brad has three in a row. Lee’s ten-assister streak ends at three. Kyle’s 25 goals today ranks fifth-best all-time in a single session. Nathan’s 20 assists are tied for fourth-best ever, and with a much better APG than any of the other sessions in the top five. Kyle becomes the second player to score 600 points in a single season. He is just eight goals away from Lee’s all-time single-season record of 373. He also has the third-highest assist total ever at 240. Nathan’s 193 assists rank sixth all-time. Dom is just 32 saves away from breaking Bron’s all-time single season save record of 1,876. Alex has the fourth-highest mark ever of 1,463. Dom is eighth games goaltended away from a new single-season record; Alex’s 105 games goaltended is the third-highest season mark ever. Lee’s 230 three star points and 240 total star points rank as the fourth-highest single-season marks ever. Bernie plays his 18th consecutive session; Lee his 14th; Oliver his twelfth; Dom his eleventh; Alex, Marcus and Nathan their seventh; Shem and Stefan their sixth.

SDF/GDF: On the SDF, Kyle has now led eleven rankings in his career (fifth all-time). The biggest moves come from Justin, Tony and Lorne, who all have poor sessions fall off; they sit three, four and five. Justin is actually quite close to Kyle and Pat on top. Stefan’s win moves him up five spots to seventh. Lee, Tom, Marcus, Sam and K.J. are the notables who slide down. With so many small BUSH sessions on the ranking right now, there are far more VRH players on the list. Laird takes back top spot from new father Seamus on the GDF; not much else happens other than Shem passing Lyle for sixth.

A wonderful weekend of stats-padding hockey for both leagues. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.