Six months after the greatness of the DecaSession and the first-ever Burton Championship Weekend, it was time for round two Saturday. This time, however, it would take place on VRH’s home turf at Ambleside Park, as the western circuit looked to claim the second Fuller Cup.

In the five days leading up to the Fuller Cup, BUSH had five players bail (some with valid reasons, other not so much). This left the red-and-black with a rump squadron of six players, including one (Ben de Wit) who hadn’t played roller hockey in over a year. VRH also suffered a couple of late withdrawals, but with a much larger player base the white-and-blue came loaded with twelve players, the same as in April. Things looked rather bleak for the defending champions. In the spirit of sportsmanship, Rob Hajdu volunteered his services to BUSH; this left with VRH with three lines of skaters and BUSH with two.

Burton United Socialist Hockey (BUSH) Roster
#3 Colby Olsen
#4 Lee Orr
#9 Seamus O’Connor
#22 Graeme Orr
#71 K.J. O’Connor
#80 Rob Hajdu
#89 Ben de Wit

Vancouver Roller Hockey (VRH) Roster
#0 Alex Elischer
#3 Tony Hajdu
#4 Jordan Barlow
#8 OIiver Koth-Kappus
#9 Pat Elischer
#14 Marcus Keighron
#19 Eric Coutinho
#21 Bernie Koth-Kappus
#33 Ryan Disterheft
#39 Dominik Voser
#96 Sam Lam

Some jersey-related wackiness: in the haste to leave, a woefully tired Graeme forgot his BUSH sweater and had to make do with a #22 Making the Cut sweater that even had ‘Lee’ on the nameplate. Ryan also forgot his and made do with an old Shooters jersey; Marcus hauled out on old minor hockey jersey; upon joining BUSH, Rob donned an antiquated Jerry Rice 49ers jersey belonging to Seamus, ensuring everyone was in red on the BUSH wide. Bron Mach was also in attendance manning the camera from the roof of the maintenance building adjoining the rink. Jordan attempted to play with a six-foot-long stick he built himself from yew, but it exploded on the first practice shot.

The forecast looked grim with thick cloud covering the Lower Mainland, and sure enough, the sky opened up for a decent amount of drizzle for the first half of the session (a last-minute attempt to book the indoor Gym F at UBC’s Robert F. Osborne Centre fell through). This was actually a welcome sight for BUSH, who were shorthanded, completely wiped out from an eight-hour drive and a late concert, and operating on empty stomachs. For VRH it seemed that the question was not if they would win but how quickly the Cup would be over. It doesn’t matter how good your six skaters are if the other team has nine. Dom and Alex would alternate in net for VRH while BUSH had almost no choice but to ride Seamus, who was barely walking the previous day. Sure enough, VRH started their killer Pat-Marcus-Ryan line who scored two goals in 30 seconds to start the session. The hopes of BUSH rested upon Seamus being able to recover, but it would not happen this game as VRH took Game 1 5-1.

Ben and Rob were far fresher than the five teammates who had travelled from the Arrow Lakes early on. Ben’s booming wrist shot was employed all day (63 times, in fact), but the traffic that Ambleside generated ensured that he’d have a hard time getting good shots through from the point. His sheer size and inhuman conditioning, though, meant that he was quite fearsome otherwise. With he and his entire crew hungry for redemption in Game 2, they pulled off an upset in Game 2 against Alex, winning 5-3 after trailing 3-0 (Ben had four points). Seamus was getting back into form, and things looked not so bleak after all. Then came the next four games.

The Pat-Marcus-Ryan line dominated play in Games 3 through 6. Typically matched up against Lee-Graeme-Rob, they managed to embarrass them a few times with insane passing plays and blazing speed. When Lee, Graeme and Rob didn’t have to contend with the top VRH line, the Jordan-Oliver-Bernie also proved incredibly effective. The huge defensive presence of Barlow combined with the chemistry of the Koth-Kappi stung BUSH quite a few times. Seamus was doing all he could to stand on his head and make incredible strings of saves, only to be beaten by a quick pair of goals. The amounts of shots between the two sides were even all day, but the types of shots were vastly different: BUSH relied on long blasts and off-centre shots like the ones you’d see at McCormack; VRH used the rink dimensions to their advantage with plenty of smart passes and crowding the crease with traffic, getting plenty of up-close shots instead of relying on one-man breaks. Above and beyond that, both Dom and Alex stood on their heads all day. Oliver even blocked a shot with his mouth.

Having handily taken Games 3, 4 and 5, BUSH made a snap decision and switched the O’Connors in net. K.J. was up to the task as Game 6 went back and forth, BUSH finally grabbing a 4-3 lead at one point before two quick goals from the Sam-Tony-Eric line went in just as the rain became a absolute downpour unlike anything either league has seen. Seamus did leave a substantial impression in the game with four points. With just one win left for VRH to claim the cup, the gang pressed on. Tony and Barlow had to leave at this point, and K.J. pulled himself out of the game in favour of Seamus. This now meant both teams would have to double-shift players. For BUSH, this simply meant never pulling Ben off the rink; for VRH, this meant Pat was on the court ¾ of the time; these last three games were really the only times the two players ever got to actually be matched against each other.

As the sky opened up even further, large linear puddles quickly formed at either end of the rink. An umbrella was procured for the stats book while the statsman himself hunched under a tree, still getting soaked but just at a slower pace. Despite the losses, Ben was never more than two points behind Pat all day, and he and Lee led the charge as BUSH clawed back to take a second 5-3 win. Now with momentum for the first time in hours, the Bush gang was fuelled by the torrent of water coming from the sky, grinding out another 5-4 win. Ambleside Park itself was utterly devoid of people at this point other than the ones at the rink. The ball stopped dead and started floating on the puddles whenever it hit the ends of the rink, resulting in a fair amount of player drenching every time action went behind the net. Every time Pat and Marcus came together to get one past Seamus, the Lee-Ben combo would respond. Colby also started to get in on the action as the champions-turned underdogs really began to believe they could pull off the incredible comeback. But it was not to be, as Sam rammed home two of the first three goals to start Game 9, and Pat scored the championship-winning to give VRH the Fuller Cup in a series that wound up being a lot close than it should have been. If it had been any other session, the gang wouldn’t have even played, especially considering the ridiculous amounts of rain the last 90 minutes. But this was too important not to.

An amazing day with an improbable near-comeback. Pat showed why he is the preeminent player in Burton Hockey, and Ben showed that even after a year away, he can match him point-for-point. Ultimately, it came down to numbers; the larger rotation of players for VRH kept their players fresher in the early and middle part of the series while BUSH were still trying to find their legs. VRH also had players who knew how to use the small rink to their advantage. And, of course, the phenomenal play of the two Vancouver goalies, Alex and Dom. The downpour helped BUSH, but it came too late. A well-earned, well-deserved victory for a league that has shown that it has truly matched up to its rival. BUSH has won on home turf, and now so has VRH. The trophy will sit at the Koth-Kappus household, and both leagues will now prepare for May long weekend in Burton. Of course, there will lots of hockey in between now and then, and there is still more hockey to be had this weekend as Sunday will give both teams and catch to play with instead of against each other as they mix-and-match in the second Burton Open.

It was an epic day in the rain that came down to two men trading the scoring lead back-and-forth all day. It was only just, then, that Pat (12G-10A) and Ben (6G-16A) would share first star honours at 22 points apiece. They both pulled away from the rest of the crowd in the last three games. Ben easily led all shooters with 63. The third star also goes to another Fuller Cup rookie, as Marcus had 9G-5A. In goal, all of the goalies were great, but Dom stole the show with 79 saves in 91 shots for .868. Alex had 93 saves in just four games today for .854. Seamus was killed by Games 1 and 7 (not coincidentally, games where Pat-Marcus-Ryan scored quick-succession goals). He was .825 outside of those two games but has to settle for .800 even. K.J. was impressive in his lone game at .821 and 23 saves.

Here are the game scores:
VRH def. BUSH 5-1 3-5 5-3 5-2 5-2 5-4 3-5 4-5 5-1

Here are the faceoff stats:
Sam Lam 3/4 (75.00%)
Lee Orr 2/3 (66.67%)
Ryan Disterheft 2/3 (66.67%)
Rob Hajdu 2/4 (50.00%)
Colby Olsen 0/1 (0.00%)
Graeme Orr 0/1 (0.00%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 0/2 (0.00%)

SDF/GDF: With a record number of quality points available in the session today, Pat sets a new all-time high SDF rating of 146.9333. It’s his 17th in a row, the second-longest streak ever. Seamus’ brief-but-successful skate today moved him ahead of Kyle into second, with Marcus jumping up into fourth. To give you an idea of the quality value of this session, Ben debuts eleventh at 84.6250 on just one session. Dom dethrones Seamus from the top of the GDF after eleven straight on top for the Irishman; it’s Dom’s eleventh career ranking led. Alex just nudged Seamus for third; it’s a tight race between the three that will be up for grabs again tomorrow.

You’ll see the season and all-time analysis as well as the new updated Records and Honours pages Monday after the Burton Open. Don't forget to come back for tons of photos and videos taken by goaltending legend Bron Mach, too!