Today was a bizarre session to say the least. With a couple of late cancellations it led to quite a disjointed day of hockey down at Ambleside. The sun was out in full force today so the beach was quite crowded which made parking quite a chore for some of the hockey faithful. Anyhow, once we got down to it and everyone arrived we were left with 6 skaters and 2 goalies, enough for a regular 3-on-3 matchup. It would prove to be a little difficult today with the blazing sun and booya, that was some epic foreshadowing. Old school sticks in the middle gave us initial teams of veterans Andrew, Tony and Eric backed by Dom vs. a trio of enigmas in Melvin, Griff and Vince backed by Sam. On paper this looked like somewhat of a mismatch but the Grapefruit loudly proclaimed that this was precisely what he wanted so we tried these teams for one game. It turned out to be a whitewash for Team Dragonfruit Dom, but not without the help of his best friend, the post, and his second best friend, the crossbar.

Everyone agreed a trade was in order and Sam unceremoniously dealt Vincent away for the speedy Eric. Harsh. The play was quite a bit more even in Game 2. Tony and Andrew both clicked with Vince immediately while some nice passing and good play from Grapefruit's team ended up with a number of posts but not much on the scoresheet. After a much longer game, Dom's team put this one away too.

There was rumblings of switching the goalies up here but the Grapefruit craved revenge so Game 3 was started after a rest under the trees from the stifling sun. Game 3 started out much the same way as Game 2 with a number of Eric chances ending in near misses or posts and some snipe shots at the other end going post and in; a little unlucky for Sam. Melvin started feeling really queasy halfway through this game due to heat exhaustion and the group decided to take a break. The sun was really getting to him and ended his session prematurely. It was decided to continue the 3rd game 2-on-2 as we were now down to 5 skaters. Sam made a number of curious but somewhat ill-advised rushes here getting a few shots on goal and nearly scoring. Eric pretty much did a facepalm at this point as Tony finished it off into a mostly empty net.

Then Vince took off in typical Vince fashion, happy with the 3 solid games under his belt. The remaining 4 skaters decided to play a few games of 2 on 2 so Griff and Andrew teamed up with Dom against Eric, Tony and Sam, leading to our most balanced teams of the day. Game 4 went well with a lot of open chances and some excellent play by both goalies. Teams were fairly even and this was some good hockey. Griff's skates started giving out right towards the end of this game but not before he potted the winner to give Dom his 4th win of the day. A skateless Griff and only 3 skaters remaining led to the end of the session.

Disjointed indeed, but heroic effort by all.

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Thanks, Andy! That might be the biggest proportional gap between the top two scorers and the rest of the field in history. Andrew and Tony put up major PPG today with 18 and 16 points respectively; you have to drop down to 6 points to find Griff and Eric in third. It should be mentioned that other than the first game, the day was considered to be evenly matched. The biggest news may have been Dominik in net, as Burton’s most experienced goaltender set a new career high with a scintillating .917 (44/48) including two shutouts. Sam holds the dubious honour of having lost twelve consecutive games (two straight sessions with no wins is unprecedented); he finished the day at .701.

Here are the game scores:
Andrew Tony Eric Dom def. Griff Vince Melvin Sam 5-0
Andrew Tony Vince Dom def. Griff Eric Melvin Sam 5-1 5-0
Andrew Griff Dom def. Tony Eric Sam 5-3

Season Stats: Andrew continues to open a huge lead over the absent Oliver, now taking it to 321-227. Meanwhile, Tony moves up from fifth to third ahead of Marcus and Rob and looks poised to hit 200 points next time out… Eric passes Lee for seventh in points, 138-134… Tony moves past Marcus into second in goals with 107… Eric ties Ryno for ninth in goals with 65… Tony jumps into fourth in assists at 86, ahead of Bernie by one and knocking Marcus out of the top ten… Dom trails Alex 1,634-1,487 for the lead in saves, with Sam needing six more for 1,000… Dom takes the season lead in games played from the Koth-Kappi, 125-122-122… Dom becomes the first goalie with 5 shutouts this season… Tony joins the logjam at fourth in three-star points with 50… Dom cuts Alex’s lead in goalie star points to 140-125... Andrew takes the lead in PPG from Kyle with 3.00; Tony moves into fifth at 2.61… Dom’s .917 is the highest VRH session of the year and the third-best overall.

SDF/GDF: Some BUSH players take a big hit this weekend with the big five-goalie session from early April falling off… Kyle holds the SDF again for a third week, with Brad falling under the session minimum and dropping from fifth to tenth. Jesse and Terryn also fall from the top ten… Alex and Ryan stay 1-2 on the GDF, but Dom jumps up to third ahead of Lyle and Sam. Terryn and Jesse fall from the top of the rankings after falling under the session minimum.

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

On the All-Time Front: Tony needs 14 points for 600… Andrew becomes the 20th player with 500 points and is 18 points behind Sam for 19th… Eric needs two points for 400 and is seven points behind Marcus for 23rd… Tony is five goals behind Joern for 13th… Andrew passes Joe Chwachka for 19th in goals… Andrew is three assists behind Laird for 16th… Eric needs eight assists for 200… Dom becomes the first goalie to make 6,000 saves… Sam is 123 saves behind Joe Leonard for 14th… Dom is four games played behind Kyle for 13th… Dom passes Laird and Nathan for third in saves with 15, two behind Alex and one behind Bron… Andrew enters the top ten in all-time three-star points… Andrew posts his 20th career 15-pointer… Tony has six consecutive 15-pointers… Eric’s 20-pointer streak ends at two… Tony’s ten-goal streak ends at five sessions… Andrew becomes the tenth player with 15 ten-assisters… Dom ties Nathan for second in .810 sessions with 24 and for third in .820s with 20… Dom moves into fourth in .830s with 14… Dom passes Alex and Justin for the lead in .840s with 15… Dom has back-to-back .850 and pots his fifth .860… This session beat Dom’s previous high of .889, set all the back in his very first session two years ago… Sam’s 90-savers streak ends at eight sessions… Sam plays his ninth consecutive session; Andrew his fifth.