It was another in the recent series of short-but-sweet sessions in the sweltering July heat today in Burton, as Thursday's session was a last shot for play before the chaos and obliteration sure to occur this weekend at Nakusp Music Fest. Over a dozen names were bandied about for today, but once again BUSH was reduced to a bare core of seven by the time game time came around. The original 5pm start was pushed back to 6pm, which meant it was 6:45 by the time the crew left Nakusp, and 7:45 by the time the first game finally started. It was a group of hurting units today, particularly Lee and Oliver, who had spent the previous hiking Mount Jordan and took some convincing to play. Fortunately, what was expected to be an off-session turned into a fast-paced goaltending clinic featuring some of the better saves we’ve seen all year. 3-on-2 was just what the doctor ordered in this heat, and it produced a pretty good session, all things considered.

The brothers O’Connor would do battle in net (it was just K.J’s second goaltending shot this season). The Koth-Kappii, Justin, a supposedly ailing Lee, and a last-minute arrival from Watson rounded out today’s line-up. Normally 3-on-2 is a burden but today it was welcome since Bernie was looking to take breaks every ten minutes or so anyway and wanted a sub team. Rather than deal with subs, the crew just rolled with it and put Oliver and Justin with Seamus to face Bernie, Lee, Watsy and K.J. From the start, the goalie were locked in, especially Seamus who was forced to make almost two saves for every one K.J. did as the three-man team went to town. Perhaps surprisingly, they were led by Bernie, who potted 18 shots in the first game. At the 20-minute mark, the three-man team was up 3-1, but Justin and Oliver had good chemistry and were able to overcome the difference, going on a big run to take the lead 4-3 (Justin had all four goals; Ollie had assists and all four goals). Despite the heroic 39-save effort from Seamus, K.J. was solid enough himself to deny the two-man team a victory. Bernie and Lee each had four points as the three-man team pulled it out 5-4. The goalies were on fire; Seamus was .886 to K.J.’s .866 with 26 saves. Amazingly, the game only took 35 minutes despite featuring 74 shots on net.

For Game 2, Lee and Justin switched teams. Despite Seamus’ prediction that the second game would go fast due to fatigue, the skating actually picked up a bit thanks to second winds from Lee and Andrew. Bernie faded away with just one shot on goal here. Justin once again scored all of his team’s goals, but once again in a losing cause as the two-man team of Lee and Oliver skated circles around their opponents; Lee pointing out. Seamus may not have faced the volume of Game 1, but he was somehow even sharper at .905 in Game 2. K.J. was solid but it was not enough to match the supreme chemistry of the blond bombers. It was already 9pm after just two games and the break taken in between, so it was already time to go home despite everyone still wanting to continue. The story of the day was easily the crazy saves consistently pulled out by the O’Connors all session long.

The goalies ruled today, and Seamus put out one of the best sessions of his career even by his lofty standards, finishing at .892 with 58 saves in just two games. K.J. shook off the goaltending rust with a session that was a century better than his other sojourn in goal in 2010, finishing at .820. On the scoresheet, Lee and Oliver overcame hiking fatigue to take the top two spots with nine and eight points, respectively. Lee has 31 shots on goal in the two games. Justin had six goals but no assists and settled for third despite 30 shots of his own.

Here are the game scores:
Bernie Lee Andrew K.J. def. Oliver Justin Seamus 5-4
Lee Oliver Seamus def. Andrew Justin Bernie K.J. 5-2

Here are the faceoff stats:
Oliver Koth-Kappus 5/8 (62.50%)
Andrew Watson 6/11 (54.55%)
Justin Gordon 3/7 (42.86%)
Lee Orr 2/5 (40.00%)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 0/1 (0.00%)

Season Stats: Lee is back to within 40 points of Kyle’s season lead, 667-628. Oliver passes Stefan for fifth, 310-306. Bernie needs five points for 200. Justin is seven goals behind Oliver for sixth. Oliver ties Seamus for fourth in assists with 191. Justin still needs four assists for 100.Oliver is 27 shots on goal behind Nathan for fourth. Seamus’ .892 is the fourth-best session this year and the highest save percentage seen in a session since April.

On the All-Time Front: Oliver is 53 points away from 2,000. Seamus is ten points from 1,400 and 21 behind Stefan for fourth. K.J. needs nine points to become the second non-original and ninth player overall to hit 1,000. Oliver closes back to within one goal of Kyle for fourth. Oliver needs 13 assists for 1,200. Bernie needs seven assists for 700; K.J. passes Joern for ninth. Oliver retakes second in shots-on-goal from Stefan and is 101 away from 4,000. Seamus is 13 saves behind Dom for sixth all-time. Justin becomes the eight player to play 600 games. Andrew needs nine games for 100. Oliver is just five three star points behind Stefan for fifth. Seamus is just a first goalie star away from tying Nathan for the all-time lead, 375-360. Once again, the day was too short to allow scoring and goaltending volume streak to be up for consideration. Save percentage streaks were still in play, though, and Seamus now has back-to-back .860s and three straight .820s. K.J. has his tenth .820. Seamus is just one .830 behind Justin for first all-time with 16. He is tied with Nathan for second in .840s with 12, is tied for the lead in .850s with Justin and Shem at ten, ties Nathan for the lead in .860s with nine, ties Justin for the lead in .870s with six, and becomes the fourth goalie with three .890s. Bernie’s consecutive session streak goes to 24 (the seventh-longest streak ever), Lee’s to 21, and Seamus’ to six. Lee’s 310 three star points rank third-highest in a single year. Seamus is just five goalie star points from setting a new single-season record; his 185 points are five behind Shem’s mark set last year.

SDF/GDF: Pat stay on top of the SDF again. The big news is Lorne falling well below the session minimum, thus setting off a huge chain reaction of changes. Kyle and Lee move to second and third, while Marcus jumps from ninth to fourth and Sam from eighth to fifth. Seamus widens his lead on the GDF as Noel falls from fifth to eighth.

BUSH will be on hiatus this weekend for Music Fest debauchery. Perhaps VRH can sneak one in? Until next time, check out the Records and Honours pages in the Links section.