From the time that it was announced that there would be a stag for Burton Hockey stalwart Chris Jackins some months ago, it was hoped that at some point during the weekend a hockey session could be fitted in somewhere. With the stag being held in Sun Peaks, it presented an opportunity to visit a rink that had long been touted by festivity organiser Seamus O’Connor as one he’d been wanting to play for years (and that was only 31 kilometres away): the big rink at Heffley Creek in Kamloops. We’d been hearing about the rink at Len Haughton Park for over a year since the first rumblings about where to hold the DecaSession. A regulation-size, fully lighted, seldom-used potential beauty to play on. Whether or not a special stag session could actually be pulled off was anyone’s guess. All the planning in the world cannot account for the after-effects of inebriated insanity basically guaranteed at one of these events. All the gang could do was pile their gear in the car amongst the coolers full of beer and liquor and hope for the best.

Saturday evening, Seamus had readjusted his proclaimed odds of a session happening from 50 percent to 75 percent. It was 11 pm, and everyone was happy but not blitzed. Then came the call to depart for the bar just after midnight, and all hell broke loose. Three-and-a-half hours later, nearly two dozen miscreants stumbled their way down the Valley Trail for 45 minutes back to the chalet. It was not pretty. A gathering of desiccated half-corpses forcing themselves to plough into the early hours of Sunday morning. By the time everyone was in bed, it was 5:20 am. Even the bravest couldn’t muster getting up much earlier than 10:30 am Sunday. Noel managed to painfully awaken around 9:30 am, amazingly followed by Seamus, pronouncedly limping after an ill-advised wrestling match on the Valley Trail with Justin tore his ankle apart. After a 30-hour flight, driving to Sun Peaks, and dancing all night with Bossie the Aussie, Chris Jackins’ body had completely seized. Bernie and Justin were completely immobile. Hockey looked dead in the water.

Alas, miracles do happen. Despite being unable to do more than lift his head off the futon, Noel was already proclaiming his readiness for hockey. After 30 minutes of hobbling around on one leg, Seamus got some tape from Stewart Watson to wrap up his hobbled appendage and said he could play goal even if he couldn’t skate. Oliver, Ryan and Lee were easy to convince. This left Bernie, Justin and Graeme. A swift round of nagging procured Justin and Bernie (despite Bernie’s protests). Just when we were ready to set off, Lee decided to head off to the store to buy eggs; a task which apparently took him 20 minutes, for that’s how long we were left in the lurch. Bernie thought it was over, and Graeme even jumped in the hot tub. Fortunately, Lee made it back at noon, and Graeme jumped out of the tub. Chris couldn’t be moved, though; the only real disappointment of the day. Ryan readily agreed to make his debut in goal, and we were off at 12:30, knowing we had to be back in time for a late lunch and golf at 3:30. We’d have to make it short and sweet, but damn it, we were playing! No matter what happened, after last night’s debauchery, we would win just by being there.

Len Haughton Park is just past the local elementary school, which has an Ambleside-sized rink of its own. We reminded ourselves to check it out later. When we got to Haughton, we were readily impressed. Seamus had not deceived us: a regulation-size, fully-lit rink encased in 4-foot high solid concrete with bathrooms and a covered bench! It was a beaut. The down side: remember when I mentioned ‘seldom-used’? It hadn’t be swept in a long, long time. Both ends and the entire south edge were caked in mud, algae and pine cones. Not so much that a good half-hour cleaning job wouldn’t fix it, but we didn’t have half-an-hour. We had to play now. Thus we pushed the heavy, wrought-iron nets into the clear area into the middle of the rink and made it a small-court session in the middle of the regulation concrete monster. Where it was cleaned off, however, it was gold; perhaps the smoothest pavement of anywhere we’ve played. We knew right away this place has big potential to host the next BUSH-VRH supersession. It’s as brilliant a regulation-size rink as you’ll ever find. For the first time ever, we’d never have to chase a ball after it flew onto the street or into the grass. Again, it’s just a shame we didn’t have time to give it a clean with only a two-hour playing window. Because we limited ourselves to the clean area, any ball going into ‘the brown’ was treated as out-of-play so as to avoid having players wipe out on the mud.

This session would be classfied as ‘Interleague’ due to the use of a neutral and unfamiliar rink, 5 BUSH players, 2 VRH players, and Ryan (who had not played since 2006). Starting at 1:35 pm, the goalie drafted their own teams. Ryan would take Lee, Noel and Justin; Seamus would grab Graeme and the Koth-Kappii. The rain would be our main enemy (the guys actually appreciated the frequent 5-second stoppages for the ball entering the brown, for it gave them a change to ease into skating after the previous evening’s escapades). Team Ryan got out quickly, as Justin was a dominant force with 10 shots and two goals in the first ten minutes. At one point, the shots were 15-6 for Team Ryan, which had a 4-1 lead. Logan Marchischuk came by to watch the last half of the game on his way back to Nakusp; he at first was stunned by how lopsided it was. Seamus was forced to stand on his head and was over .860 at this point; his histrionics in net allowed his skaters to get back in the game. Graeme led the charge at he posted ten quick shots of his own in eight minutes to bring his team back to 4-3. Bernie made the game 4-3 and then tied the game on an amazing backhand one-timer top corner over Ryan’s glove straight off of an Oliver pass to tie the game. Now Ryan was on the defensive, and he rose to the challenge in his first ever game in net, including an amazing five-save sequence in which he repeatedly stoned Graeme and Oliver, flopping around like a dying fish to deny his challengers. Justin, ably assisted by Lee and Noel, however, would have the last laugh, scoring the winning goal and pointing out the game. Seamus did try again to score from goal, wiring a hard one that missed just past the post.

Logan shook hands at the bench and headed off for the sunset as the rain turned into a downpour. Game 2 went by quickly, as Seamus let in a couple of soft goals in the middle of the game after what had been a solid run on that injured ankle. It would be Lee’s turn to point out, and Noel had four points of his own. Ryan remained steady, and that was all his team needed. Oliver was strong on defence, but Noel was equal to the task on the other end. Team Ryan won 5-3, and the session was called in order to ensure that the rest of the stag could continue as planned. On our way out, though, we had to investigate Heffley Creek Elementary, and there we found another revelation: a fully boarded and painted games court with the perfect dimensions for 3-on-3, not to mention perfectly clean! We could have played here the whole time! However, there was only one net here at this rink today and not two, so it was just as well. But it must also be considered for future sessions based are Sun Peaks, for it is the optimal size or us and in fantastic condition. It’s very good to know that whether we have twenty skaters or six, we have two great hockey options in Heffley Creek, Kamloops.

It wasn’t mindblowing hockey by any means, but it was lots of fun and just what the doctor ordered. With just two games today, it was probable that’d we have a tie for first, and we did. Justin (5G-3A) and Lee (3G-5A) tied on eight points, although Justin outshot Lee 21-15. Noel, possibly the most ‘destroyed’ skater coming into the session, showed little sign of ill effect, finishing just a point off of the leaders with 2G-5A. Graeme did a lot of the heavy lifting for Team Seamus, and it showed with five goals and 25 shots on goal in the two games. In goal, it was a surprisinly solid performance from Ryan that few were expecting, posting .811 to Seamus’ .767 (two quick goals in Game 2 killed what was otherwise an excellent session; only playing two games didn’t give him a chance to recover). Ryan demonstrated some excellent acrobatic saves and a go-for-broke attitude which aided his efforts. Next time he’s in Nakusp, we definitely would like to see him again in goal!

Here are the game scores:
Ryan Lee Noel Justin def. Seamus Bernie Oliver Graeme 5-4 5-3

Here are the faceoff stats:
Graeme Orr 3/4 (75.00%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 6/10 (60.00%)
Justin Gordon 3/6 (50.00%)
Lee Orr 3/8 (37.50%)
Noel Ballard 1/3 (33.33%)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 0/2 (0.00%)

Season Stats: Lee becomes the second player to score 600 points this season. Oliver is two points behind Stefan for fifth. Justin needs two points for 200; Bernie passes K.J. for tenth in points and four to tie Jordan Barlow for ninth. Lee needs three assists for 300. Lee leads Kyle in games played, 197-194.

On the All-Time Front: Lee becomes the first player to score 2,300 career points. Lee needs one game or 800 in his career. Scoring streaks and save streaks are not affected due to the short session length. Ryan pots an .810 in his first goaltending session. Bernie plays his 21st consecutive session, Lee his 18th.

SDF/GDF: Not too much changes on top with Pat and Kyle far ahead of everyone on the SDF. In fact, with Pat’s only session loss this year coming off, his rating rises to over 135.2, the second-highest mark ever. Lee’s co-win in today’s short session moves him up to third. Sam falls below the session minimum and plummets to tenth from third, bringing up Marcus and Tony to fourth and fifth. On the GDF, history is made. For the first time in history on either ranking, two players are tied for the top spot with the exact same score. Seamus drops down to tie Alex at .8169 exactly. This share does help Seamus pass laird for the third-highest number of sessions led (23); this is Alex’s second turn on top.

Next week, both Koth-Kappii are in BUSH and your humble statistician pays VRH a visit. Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.