Another sunny Sunday in Burton (although nowhere near as hot as last week) brought us another day of Burton Hockey at John McCormack Park. Graeme Orr was making his long-awaited return to the fold, joining seven players who have been as close to stalwarts as BUSH has had in this disjointed year. With a drop-in on Lyle Detta coming up empty due to a foot injury, and no replacements around, it would be the unlikely pair of Kyle and Lee doing battle against each other in net, which actually worked out fine because it left us exactly at 3-on-3. Well, actually, 2-on-2 for the first half of Game 1, since both Graeme and Andrew took incredibly long to get their skates together.

Lee obtained the services of Terryn and James, to be joined by Graeme, against Kyle’s tandem of K.J. and Ryan, to be joined by Andrew. The skaters came out swinging with four goals in the first four minutes, but from then on. Lee and Kyle stood on their heads. At first it was K.J. and Ryan throwing all of the volleys at Lee (the shots at one point were 24-12 in their favour), but once Graeme and Andrew came on to make it 3-on-3, things evened out. A 45-minute drag-out went to the wire, but it was Terryn’s four consecutive goals for his side that made the difference. Lee made 32 saves for the win; Kyle still made 30 of his own in the loss. K.J. was in on all four of his side’s tallies AND hit seven posts during the game. After a prolonged break in the aftermath of three more skaters with blown wheels, Game 2 was more of the same, although not quite as shot heavy and slightly worse for Kyle. Lee was on fire here, finishing the series at .887. One of those saves was from a Terryn blast that actually lodged in Lee’s face mask about an inch from his teeth. Terryn scored another four goals here en route to a 5-3 win.

From a 4:40 arrival time, it was now 7:00 and we had played two games. But much like last night’s UFC card, things accelerated after the two-hour mark, with games coming fast and furious. Kyle swapped out of net in favour of Ryan and took the three cousins as his partners against Terryn, K.J. and Andrews with Ryan. Putting the session’s two leading scorers together paid major dividends at first. Lee’s session came crashing down with three goals on the first four shots, having people openly wondering if Ryan would pull off a no-shot shutout. A Kyle Grenier snipe changed that quickly, but the result was soon sealed, 5-2. Lee was a mere 6-for-11 compared to Ryan’s 10-for-12. In one five-minute stretch, Graeme wiped and got covered in rocks and dirt, sliced his elbow open, got hit in the head with the puck, and crashed directly into Andrew, bowling the two of them over. Game 4 was much closer as Grenier awoke with four points and Graeme and James’ defence came to the fore. While K.J. was certainly on fire for Team Ryan, Team Lee would pull out a 5-4 win. Game 5 was a quick storm back for K.J. and Terryn, who each put home multiple unassisted goals as they battled not just the other side but each other for the day’s scoring lead. They took the series with a 5-3 win.

With Graeme and Andrew going home, the teams were kept otherwise intact for the final 2-on-2 series. The goalies were helpless in Game 6, although Lee did have a four-save sequence on K.J., and the game ended quickly 5-3 for Team Ryan. Grenier would quickly roar back and dismantle Ryan, who to be fair was feeling the effects of his ailing left knee here; by the end of the session, Ryan’s knee was redder than the ball. Kyle clicked well with James and the tandem won Game 7 easily 5-2; Kyle pointing out. While the series was now tied, no one had any qualms stopping; a well-earned rest after a fast-paced, high-octane session.

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There were only two horses in the scoring race today, K.J. and Terryn. Both were very fast and put up far more shots than the other players. They were tied after Game 1 at four and tied after Game 3 at eleven. K.J. got out to a small lead midway through the session and held the margin on the back of 18 goals in the seven games, finishing with 25 points to Terryn’s 23. Making a hard charge at the end of the session was Kyle. Despite not skating the first two games, he climbed all the way to third with 12 goals and 18 points in just five games. He also picked up star points from goal with his .831 from the first series. Lee’s probably wishing he switched out right then as well. From .887 after Game 2, he gradually fell down to .786; games 3 and 6 especially taking down. The mystique was removed from Ryan’s heretofore stellar goaltending career with .700 even today on a swollen-red left knee.

Game Scores:
Terryn James Graeme Lee def. K.J. Ryan Andrew Kyle 5-4 5-3
Terryn K.J. Andrew Ryan def. Kyle Graeme James Lee 5-2 4-5 5-3
Terryn K.J. Ryan vs. Kyle James Lee 5-3 2-5

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):

Kyle Grenier 8/11 (77.78%)

Graeme Orr 7/13 (53.85%)

Terryn Stenseth 22/41 (53.66%)

K.J. O’Connor 8/18 (44.44%)

James Hewlitt 7/16 (43.75%)

Ryan Bateman 2/4 (33.33%)

Andrew Watson 0/3 (0.00%)

As seems to be commonplace these days, we’re waiting on VRH stats to come in before we can write-up the day’s season and all-time stats analysis. Look for it in the write-up from today’s VRH session once it gets posted!