Sorry for the delay in getting these out, but I had a load of people in town from Matador for a travel blogging conference. Was a nice break getting out to Ambleside to watch some hockey.

Hockey has consumed this city. With the Canucks deep into the Stanley Cup Finals the inhabitants are being taken on a roller coaster ride eerily reminiscent of the year 1994. It was fitting that VRH would gather at Ambleside on Sunday to play a session amidst all the hockey tension in the city.

It would be a smaller session on Sunday, that would begin 2-on-2 as the crew awaited for Marcus to arrive. Andrew Bernie and Dom would square off against Oliver, Tony and Sam. Sam going the previous week without a win, came out strong lead by the dynamic passing between Oliver and Tony. They controlled the play for most of the game, an won handily 5-1 peppering Dom with 36 shots.

The second featured the arrival of Marcus, who brought with him what seemed like boundless energy. Andrew, Marcus and Dom would play Tony, Oliver, Bernie and Sam. Dom would get his revenge on Sam in this game, having his team lead by Marcus' vigor win 5-2. Marcus would have pointed out this game if it weren't for a bit of controversy over a Smart goal. It was undecided if a goal was scored (Andrew saying Sam's glove was over the line, with Sam clearly denying it) so Andrew was given a penalty shot, on which he scored.

The teams were tried again, but this time Dom would fall to defeat by the goal scoring prowess of Tony. This game was over almost before it started, with Team Sam scoring 5 goals on 12 shots. It reminded me of another hockey game that was recently played and ended 5-2.

In the final game in the best-of-3 series we had our first close game of the day. Dom stepped up his game, while Andy went on a goal scoring run. Tony being fed by Oliver also got back to his scoring ways, which lead to a golden goal final game. In the end it was Team Dom who rallied and scored the winner to take the series, much to the disgust of Sam.

Game 5 new teams were formed that would featured Tony, Marcus and Dom up against Andrew, Bernie, Oliver and Sam. The balanced attack from team Sam was too much for team Dom, which lead to a 5-3 victory in favor of Sam. This game was Tony's lowest shot total in any game for the day, which is probably why he was unable to score a goal (a statistical anomaly if you look at the other games).

The last game of the day featured the same teams, and would produce a lengthy grinder of a game that would give Team Sam one final victory on the day in a 5-4 victory. Tony got back to his goal scoring, while Andrew threw down a complete game with a goal and 4 assists.

It was great to get out into the sunshine and watch some Burton Hockey again. Hopefully in the not too distant future I will be able to retire my post as Stuffin' Numbers and get back to playing.

Of note, not a single "statistical call out" infraction was breached on the day, proof that the harsh punishments are acting as a worthy deterrent.

Thanks, Stef! It was a tight three-way battle for the scoring lead all day, and ultimately it would come down to one point between the top three scorers, with Tony (13G-8A) and Oliver (9G-12A) beating out Andrew (13G-7A) by a single point to split first star. Tony had 75 shots in goal in just six games. The goaltending race also came down to the last goal, with Sam just ekeing out an .826-.824 lead over Dom.

Here are the game scores:
Oliver Tony Sam def. Andrew Bernie Dom 5-1
Marcus Andrew Dom def. Tony Oliver Bernie Sam 5-2 2-5 5-4
Andrew Oliver Bernie Sam def. Tony Marcus Dom 5-3 5-4

Season Stats: Andrew’s huge scoring lead shrinks by just a points over second-place Oliver, 341-248… Tony opens a little gap between himself and new fourth-place man Marcus, 214-202, with Rob dropping to fifth… The goalscoring race remains pretty much static, although the totals increase a bit (Andrew 155, Tony 120, Marcus 114, Oliver 103)… Oliver shrinks Andrew’s assist lead to 186-145… Tony trails Rob for third in assists, 101-94, with Bernie at 92… Marcus passes Rob for third in shots on goal and crosses the 500 mark; Oliver trails Rob 494-485… Marcus falls behind Mitch to fourth in save percentage…Dom trails Alex for the season save lead, 1,637-1,609… Sam becomes the third goalie to make 1,000 saves this year… Tony jumps into sixth in games played and Marcus enters the top ten… Dom has goaltended exactly 100 games this year while Sam trail Alex 76-74 for second… Andrew hits 200 three-star and total star points on the year… Tony and Oliver are tied for fourth in three-star points with 65… Dom ties Alex for the lead in goalie star points at 140… Dom passes Alex for second in total star points, 145-140… Tony passes Kyle for fourth in GPG at 1.50…Tony takes the shots-per-game lead from K.J. at 7.68…

SDF/GDF: Kyle’s SDF lead over Andrew is quite huge now as their rating travel in opposite directions; Andrew has almost fallen down to where third-place Ryan Bateman is… Marcus and Oliver only move up one and two spots, but their rating values go way up… Ryan has a mildly less-impressive session fall off, but it’s not quite enough to put him back ahead of Alex, who leads his 22nd career ranking and is tied for fourth all-time with Laird.

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

On the All-Time Front: Oliver is back to within 150 points of Lee for the all-time scoring lead… At 1,493 points, Bernie is just one behind Lorne for fifth and 14 behind Seamus for fourth… Tony becomes the 16th player with 600 points and is eight behind Mitch Detta for 15th… Andrew passes Sam for 19th; Marcus passes Ben for 22nd… Tony passes Joern for 13th in goals; Marcus moves past Joe Chwachka to enter the top 20… Oliver needs 11 assists to become the first player with 1,500… Andrew passes Laird for 16th in assists and needs eleven for 300… Marcus becomes the 24th player with 200 assists and 22nd player with 1,000 shots on goal… Sam is 35 saves behind K.J. for 13th all-time… Dom passes Kyle for 13th in games played… Tony passes Chris Jackins for 21st in games played… Sam is on game goaltended behind Joe Leonard for 13th… Oliver ties Lorne for third in three-star points at 755 and is just ten behind Kyle for second all-time… Oliver also ties Justin for fifth in total star points with 755… Dom is 15 points behind Nathan for ninth in total star points with 485… Andrew ties Mitch Detta for eleventh in 15-pointers with 21… Tony has seven 15-pointers in a row; Marcus has four… Oliver ties Lorne for fourth in 20-pointers with 28; Andrew enters the top ten with 16; Tony has ten… Sam breaks .800 and .810 for the fifth time… Dom passes Nathan for second in .810s with 25 and ties Alex for second in .820s with 21… Dom has three straight .820s… Dom becomes the first goalie with 40 80-savers… Dom passes Alex for the lead in 100-savers with 29 and ties him for the lead in 110-savers with 23… Sam plays his tenth straight session; Andrew his sixth… Dom becomes the first player to goaltend 100 games in two different seasons… Dom’s 145 goalie star points tie for the fifth-highest single-season total of all-time along with Bron’s 2009 campaign.