The day began tumultuously, with dark ominous clouds hovering overhead and the ground already moist from earlier showers. The forecast was calling for showers all day, and this session likely would have been cancelled if not for the fact that the organizer was also our resident meteorologist, Bernhart Perry Mulgrave, who spotted a clear/light cloud patch headed towards the lower mainland on the infrared satellite map. BPM’s prediction appeared at first to no better than any other weatherman’s (i.e., dead wrong), as showers began to fall on the journey over to the North Shore. However, upon arrival, the showers ceased and although the ground was wet, it was playable after all. And only a mere half-hour or so later, the clouds began to lighten and the glorious sun would force itself through. Not much more than an hour after that, the court was bone dry and the conditions ended up being perfect for the rest of the day.

Perhaps it was preordained - a destiny foretold by the hockey gods - that playing on this day against all odds would result in a chance encounter with a CBC camera crew looking to film an intro for the upcoming Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. Andy & J-Bo jumped at the chance to say a couple of lines, and as the Lavelier mics were strapped onto their equipment and sound levels were tested, the excitement among the rest of the VRH crew was palpable. Ironically, J-Bo was wearing a yellow Predators t-shirt that he had picked up on his trip to Nashville. At first he put an X over the Predators logo with some white hockey tape, but after some discussion with the CBC crew he decided to change his shirt. It took a few takes to get the blocking down, but after the 3rd attempt, the cameraman announced that he “got it”… and the rest is history.

Note: the spot did air almost right at 4:30pm to start off the pregame show for the Canucks-Sharks game on May 15. You can watch the video right here on the Burton Hockey site: http://burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=159

Today we would end up with just enough for 3-on-3 and would see the addition of a new player, Dom’s cousin’s friend from Switzerland, Kevin Gander. Grapefruit and Voser-Dos would man the pipes again. In an effort to achieve balance, the following teams were created: Andy-Ollie-Bernie-Dom(G) vs. JBo-Ryno-Kevin-Sam(G). As these teams did indeed prove to be quite even, the initial 3 game series (won by Team Dom) was extended to a 5 game series. It was a fast paced series with both teams getting a lot of chances; Dom stood on his head and Sam was also tough to beat (there were long stretches where both Andy & Bernie were completely stone walled, so Ollie had to step up his sniping abilities and get most of the goals). Andy-Ollie-Bernie really clicked in the 5th game and won it rather handily.

You may think the story ends here, but you would be dead wrong; we sit now only at the beginning of the story of ultimate redemption. As everyone had enough for one more game left in the tank, we decided to just play one more with the same teams. But at this point something happened; perhaps it was the fact that Kevin changed to non-broken skates and wasn’t falling every 30 seconds; perhaps it was Ollie have foot problems and hardly being able to skate (something usually reserved for the other Koth-Kappi) and the rest of Team Dom tiring out; perhaps it was it was J-Bo turning on his 5th gear and Ryno finding his scoring touch. But whatever it was, Team Sam came out flying and won the game in dominating fashion. Because this game was so quick, and because we could not leave without a rubber match on what had now effectively become a 7-game series, one more game was played. This game would have all the epicness of the series itself, with Team Dom coming back from being down 4-2 to send it to sudden death overtime. Sam would make a couple of huge saves before J-Bo would make move turning the D inside out before feeding a perfect pass to the Rhymenoceros who would put it away.

Each of the last 3 sessions have featured a 7 game series, with each series featuring a big comeback. What a perfect lead-up to next weekend’s supersession in Burton!

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Thanks, Bern! A rare six-skater session resulted in lots of points going around today. Leading the charge was Andrew at 8G-18A, who only had one game all day where he didn't score at least three points. Second went to Oliver at 21 points; had his foot not begun to act up near the end (which is becoming a recurring problem), he would have challenged Andy for the lead. A close battle for third ended in a tie between Jordan and Ryan at 20 points each (9-11 and 11-9, respectively), who beat out Bernie by two. In goal, Sam had yet another 100-plus-save session (that's seven in a row now) but fell just short of .800 at .797. The lack of action hurt Dom at .748 with just 77 saves. The volume difference between the two teams was so huge that Sam actually had more saves than Dom had shots against.

Here are the game scores:
Ryan Kevin Jordan Sam def. Andrew Oliver Bernie Dom 5-4 1-5 3-5 5-3 2-5 5-1 5-4

Season Stats: Andrew’s lead over Oliver in the scoring race is exactly 60 points, 270-210, as the two put some distance between themselves and third-place Rob today. Bernie passes Lee to move into sixth, with Jordan only two points behind Lee for seventh. Ryan moves up from twelfth to eighth… Oliver moves into third in goals and is five behind Marcus for second. He also becomes the fifth person to hit 400 shots on goal this year… Sam passes Rob for fifth in games played at 80… Oliver ties Lee for fourth in three-star points with 50… Sam passes Marcus for fifth in total star points with 70, ten behind Rob for fourth… Andrew ties Kyle for the lead in APG at 1.67… Andrew’s 18 assists are the most seen in a session this year.

SDF/GDF: Andrew’s lead actually shrinks thanks to the session the fell off being worth more than today in terms of quality points. His lead over second-place Ryan Bateman is almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, his 13th career ranking led puts him sole fifth all-time… The injured Stefan drops seven places to twelfth; he’ll be gone completely at the end of the SuperSession next week.. The removal of even a slightly-off session is all it takes to change the top of the GDF as things are that close. Alex barely nudges ahead of Jesse to take the top spot for a 17th time. Nothing else really changes.

All-Time Records, Awards and Honours
All-Time Session Scoring Milestones & Streaks
All-Time Session Goaltending Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Oliver becomes the first players to score 1,000 points in both leagues of Burton Hockey... Oliver becomes the second player to score 2,400 points in his Burton career, and thanks to BUSH's lack of activity this year, is back within 200 points of Lee for the all-time lead... Bernie trails Seamus for fifth, 1,488-1,475... Ryan is seven points behind Tony Hajdu for 17th... Bernie is 16 goals behind K.J. for seventh... Ryan trails Rob by ten goals for 16th... Andrew becomes the 23rd player with 200 goals... Jordan trails Rob and Nathan Robson by just two assists for twelfth all-time... Andrew leapfrogs Ryan and Tony to move into 17th in assists... Jordan needs 29 shots on goal for 1,000... Dom needs 138 saves to become the first goalie to make 6,000; no else is even at 4,3000... Sam needs 88 saves to become the 15th goalie with 1,000 saves... Oliver needs eight games for 1,300... Ryan needs one game for 300... Dom becomes the first goalie to goaltend 400 games; no one else has goaltended 300. Oliver passes Stefan and ties Kyle for third in three-star points with 740; he's 15 points behind Justin for fifth in total star points, 755-740... Andrew becomes the only player to push his career APG over 1.50... Bernie pots his 15th career 15-pointer... Andrew has six straight 15-pointers; Oliver five... Oliver is one 20-pointer behind Lorne for fourth all-time with 27; Andrew grabs his 15th, and Jordan his eighth, and Ryan his second... Andrew has six straight 20-pointers and three straight 25-pointers... Andrew's ten-goal streak ends at six... Oliver records his 60th career ten-assister (the next closest are Lee Orr at 45 and Stefan Klopp at 26)... Andrew enters the top ten in ten-assisters with 13 and has six in a row, one short of Kyle Grenier's record of seven... Sam's quietly running up one of the longest high-save-volume streaks in history with seven-straight 100-savers. That's every full session he's ever goaltended... Oliver's consecutive session streak hits 37; only his own 2007-10 streak of 47 and Bernie's 2010 streak of 28 are longer... Dom's streak of sessions is also quite long at 28, the eighth-longest streak ever... Bernie's played 16 in a row.

It's the 2011 Spring SuperSession next weekend! VRH defends the Fuller Cup against a resurgent BUSH squad, and the Burton Open mixes and matches players from both leagues, some of whom have never played alongside each other before. Throw in camping, beverages, and some rowdy Nakuspians, and Burton will be running wild!