It was time.

A day like no other; the most hallowed weekend in Burton Hockey. Twice a year, Burton United Socialist Hockey and Vancouver Roller Hockey come together to celebrate the greatest sport on wheels. Being spring, it would be VRH’s turn to visit Burton and take to the hallowed court of John McCormack Memorial Park. This year would incorporate an interesting twist, as the VRHers would incorporate a camping trip into their plans, staying just down the road at Burton Historical Park. Sadly, there would be quite a few absences from last year; no Stefan Klopp (broken leg); no Jordo Downey, Rob Hajdu or Pat Elischer (Europe); no Lorne Bilinski, Marcus Keighron, Beencent Garcia, Tony Hajdu, Eric Coutinho or 2-time supersession MVP Dom Voser. There were delays in leaving, delays in travelling. A phone call from Lake Country let us know too late that there would be a 90-minute in their arrival. And yet, the crew emerged, led by the dominant 2011 scoring leader Andrew Smart and the netminding wunderkind that is Alex Elischer (who came with the ever-reliable Bernie Koth-Kappus in tow). Joern Hornhardt was the first to show, getting in last night from Calgary. Ryan Disterheft would make his first trip to Burton, carrying Andrew, the explosive Sam Lam, the all-time heart and soul of Burton Hockey Oliver Koth-Kappus, and a special surprise for all us – Steven John Weatherhead! Steve hadn’t played Burton Hockey in two years, and hadn’t played at McCormack in eight. VRH was definitely here to make an impact.

Meanwhile, the BUSH crew was unaware of the VRH travel delays. Your humble statistician flagged down his father on the way to Edgewood and bribed him to grab the goaltending gear from Lee Orr’s shed and drop him off in Burton. When he arrived, it was a lonely scene: Dylan Hascarl and Ryan Bateman, by themselves, wondering where the hell everyone was. Mitch Detta would soon join them, and 60 full minutes were spent waiting for the crew. When Kyle Grenier arrived (another parental assist) followed by James Hewlitt and Joern Hornhardt, the consternation was palpable. Dylan had strapped on the pads, and it was almost half-court time. Thankfully the main VRH convoy arrived, closely followed by BUSH co-leader Seamus O’Connor. When Al and Bernie finally made it, Day One of the 2011 Burton SuperSession was ready to begin at 5:30 pm.

Today would be the Burton Open, the mix-and-match series that gives players from the two leagues an opportunity to play with guys from the other league they don’t normally get to see. With just two goalies, no round-robin would be necessary. Sticks-in-the-middle gave us Alex’s crew of Kyle, Bernie, Steve, Joern, James, and Mitch against Dylan’s squad of Andrew, Sam, Seamus, Oliver and the Ryans. Game 1 set a pattern that would repeat itself throughout the evening: Alex facing huge amounts of shots. Not surprisingly, putting Andrew Smart and Ryan Bateman generated a lot of points in that first game. Throw in a ‘Rust? What rust?’ Seamus and the speedy Sam, and it was a 5-1 romp. Having had to leave to book the campsite, Ryno got back just in time to take a shift and set up Seamus on the winning goal. Dylan was outstanding, stopping 14 of 15 shots, while Alex stopped 24 of the 29 he faced. The next game couldn’t have been more different; evidently everyone wanted to make up for the late start, because there were a grand total of 13 shots between the two teams. Grenier potted four points, and Steve added three of his own as this game went 5-1 the other way. Alex stopped 6 of 7; Dylan netted just one solitary save. He’d redeem himself in Game 3, though, as the longest game of the day saw his side put 43 shots on the Blueberry. Team Blueberry had 29 of their own to give to Dylan. A very even affair saw lots of points being spread around. Steve was quite impressive here (in fact, he was all day as a strong two-way presence), and the unlikely combination of Bernie and James had one of the nicest tic-tac-tic goals you’ll ever see. Kyle would sink home the golden goal to take Game 3, and Dylan would swap out of net in favour of Bates to continue the series. Ryan hasn’t had a bad stint in goal yet, and today was no exception, as he stopped 18 of 21 in a 5-3 win. Not that his side wasn’t doing their part, throwing another 42 saves at Alex Elischer. Andrew and Seamus continued to rack up the points here, while Mitch and Kyle remained solid at the other end in the loss. Grenier was the top offensive skater of the day thus far, however, and he’d grab another four in Game 5 to lead his side to ultimate Burton Open victory. A fun, hard-fought series that was the first 4-on-4 action many of these guys had seen in a while.

With 75 minutes of daylight left, the session ploughed on as the group milked it for all it was worth. Dylan went back into net here for Bates. At this point, Kyle led the way at 14 ahead of Mitch and Andrew at 10. As interleague plays almost always results in low individual point totals, the session scoring lead was assured if he kept playing. Now, normally when Kyle gets to 14 points, it’s pretty much a no-brainer: ‘Let’s play again, you pussies!’ But the only ride he could get back to town was with the departing James. He hemmed and hawed, but he ultimately took the ride, ending the most epic scoring streak in Burton Hockey: 41 consecutive 15-pointers, a feat that will probably never be touched. This opened up the session scoring race again, and when Oliver, Andy, Seamus, Mitch and Bernie were placed with Alex in goal, the results were not pretty. Andrew and Seamus would figure in on 7 of the 10 goal their side scored, and Dylan was hung out to dry as the session abruptly ended 5-3, 5-1 with just 42 shots between both teams for the entire series. Nevertheless, the appetite for hockey remains strong, and as twilight fell on the park, the anticipation for tomorrow’s VRH-BUSH clash grew.

And so, we head to Day Two tomorrow. Most of the gang will congregate at Three Lions Pub in Nakusp for lunch and the Canucks-Sharks game before heading back to Burton for the big showdown we’ve been waiting six months for, as VRH defends the Fuller Cup against BUSH. We know what VRH will look like, but who will show for BUSH? BUSH’s leading scorer and captain Lee Orr will be back in the fold. Will it be 8-on-7, or will someone else come through to even things out? Tune in same time tomorrow to find out…

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Outshot 173-122 on the day, Alex Elischer stood tall tonight, powering his teams to victories in both series. He would post 152 saves this day, with an outstanding .879 (the second-best interleague save total ever after Laird Bilinski’s 165 saves and third-highest save percentage after Taylor Reitmeier’s .887 and Seamus O’Connor’s .885, all last spring). Ryan was stellar in his short stint with .833, while Dylan’s day was a tale of two sessions (.820 in games 1, 3 and 6; .300 in games 2 and 7); he finished at .730. Scoring-wise, Grenier all but had the session in the bag when he decided to leave after Game 5 with 14 points, bucking the tendency for player to have low PPG in interleague games; it would still be enough to tie for second. Instead, Andrew would take first star thanks to seven points in the final two games to finish at 17. Tying Kyle for second were Mitch (the day’s goal leader with nine) and Seamus (who tied Andrew with ten assists). Steve was the only other player in double-digits today in his first session back after four years.

Here are the game scores:
Team Blueberry (Alex Kyle Bernie Steve Joern James Mitch) def. Team Dylan-Bates (Ryno Andrew Bates Sam Seamus Oliver Dylan) 1-5 5-1 5-4 3-5 5-2
Team Blueberry wins Burton Open
Bernie Mitch Oliver Seamus Andrew Alex def. Ryno Sam Joern* Steve Bates Dylan 5-3 5-1 (*no Game 7)

Here are the faceoff stats:
Andrew Smart 2/2 (100.00%)
Seamus O’Connor 9/15 (60.00%)
Kyle Grenier 3/5 (60.00%)
James Hewlitt 3/5 (60.00%)
Mitchell Detta 7/14 (50.00%)
Joern Hornhardt 6/12 (50.00%)
Ryan Bateman 3/6 (50.00%)
Sam Lam 3/6 (50.00%)
Ryan Disterheft 1/3 (33.33%)
Steve Weatherhead 2/7 (28.57%)
Dylan Hascarl 1/4 (25.00%)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 0/1 (0.00%)

There’s just so much hockey this weekend that we’re saving the season/all-time stats analysis for tomorrow’s write-up. However, we do have to address the interesting situations on the SDF and GDF since so many of the guys at the top were in action today.

SDF/GDF: Andrew Smart holds on to his lead, but it’s no longer Ryan Bateman he’s battling with; it’s Kyle Grenier, who rockets up to second. Meanwhile, Bates drops to fourth… Falling three spots to eighth is the vacationing Rob Hajdu; Mitch reenters the top 12… Well, the race on top of the SDF isn’t so close anymore. Alex’s excellent performance solidifies his hold on the top spot ahead of Jesse. Ryan’s solid in third; Dylan crosses the session minimum and jumps to seventh.