The scorching West Kootenay heat made its 2011 debut today in Burton, as a swath of last-minute confirmations made this one of the larger sessions of the young BUSH season and gave us 4-on-4 play for much of the session. Making his Burton Hockey debut and adding to the long list of sibling combinations to grace the rink at McCormack Park would be Carter Stenseth (he and Terryn make up the 18th pair of siblings in Burton Hockey history), recruited to play goal. Also making his 2011 would be our old friend Andrew Watson.

While waiting for James and Lyle to arrive, the session began with Kyle Grenier opposite Carter in the other net. Kyle was very much feeling the effects of the previous night’s outing, but this did stop him from repeatedly stoning the Jesse-Lee-KJ combination. Valiant as he was with 20 saves, his team went down to a lopsided 5-1 defeat; Carter facing just eight shots in his first game.

James and Lyle now ready to go, the second series would be played 4-on-4. Kyle would head back out on skates after his .800 game, but would get off to a slow start. Teamed with Watson, James, Jesse and Carter, they would be outshot by a two-to-one ratio by the Mitch-Drew-KJ-Lee combo, would win 5-3 5-3. Carter pulled off quite a few multi-save sequences, and was looking solid in his rookie debut. Play here was chippy, and dealing with the sun was quite the grind. A few of the guys were not prepared and began running out of water early; with the park water faucets not turned on until after May long weekend most years, multiple litres of bottled water are a necessity. A Grenier quote: ‘Everyone pool their sweat together; I want to drink it!’

The next series would pit Kyle-Mitch-KJ-Lyle-Watson against Likness-Lee-James-Carter-Jesse. During this series, the bodies would start dropping out due to exhaustion, with Watty going home after Game 4 and Jesse’s blisters driving him out after Game 5. K.J. continued a torrid scoring pace here, but the Lee-Drew-Jesse combo was very strong in Game 4, and gave them a 5-4 victory. Mitch and K.J. responded in Game 5 by teaming up for a 5-2 victory in Game 5. Back to 3-on-3, no subs for Game 6, the session finally opened. Kyle, to this point, had been in serious jeopardy of losing of legendary 15-pointer streak (just seven points after Game 4, and nine after Game 5). He, Likness and Carter were so parched that they actually went across the street and asked a homeowner if they could fuse their tap to fill up their bottles). Having sweated out the bad stuff, Kyle came alive with four points in Game 6. KJ also had four and Mitch had three of his own as their crew would win 5-3.

Kyle would press for one more game to ensure his 15-pointer streak would stay alive. Andrew Likness would leave after this game, leaving a 3-on-2 situation; Lee and Kyle backed by Lyle would team up against Mitch, James and KJ with Carter. It was a quick, even game, but the two-man team would win. Kyle pointed out, and Lee had four of his own to end the day with a 5-3 win on a hot-but-fun day. Next time, I'm sure they'll be bringing plenty more water with them.

Follow Burton Hockey on Twitter @burtonhockey
Visit Burton Hockey on Facebook

K.J. got out of the gate hot and stayed on top all day in scoring. The final game made things a tiny bit closer, but his lead was more than safe as he finished with 15G-10A. Lee edged out the late-charging Kyle 19-18 for second. Mitch wasn’t far behind at 8-and-8. Had Jesse played the last two games, he may very well have figured into the race for three star points as well. In goal, Carter got off to a great start but was placed on the losing team for five of the last six games, which stacked the odds a bit too much; he’d finished with .750 and 90 saves in his maiden journey into the Burton nets. Lyle only faced 73 shots all day and finished at .742. Grenier’s lone game in goal may have been a loss, but with 20 saves, he certainly held up his end of the bargain and left goal satisfied.

Here are the game scores:
Jesse Lee KJ Carter def. Kyle Mitch Likness Watson 5-1
Mitch Likness KJ Lee Lyle def. Watson James Kyle Jesse Carter 5-3 5-3
Kyle Mitch KJ Lyle Watson* (*Game 4 only) def. Likness Lee James Carter Jesse* (Games 4, 5 only) 4-5 5-2 5-3
Lyle Lee Kyle def. Carter Mitch James KJ 5-3

There was also VRH action today on the other side of the province. When that boxscore gets posted (likely tomorrow night), be sure to check back then for your usual dose of season and all-time stats analysis.