Another warm, mostly sunny Sunday in the lower mainland meant yet another session at Ambleside, one with just about perfect numbers (one sub for each team). The day began with an interesting event: a man in a suit that a few people recognized as a former Sentinel grad, after chatting us up about hockey and his fitness gym, asked if he could interview one of us about their ideas on the afterlife. Beener, having a philosophically and spiritually curious nature, agreed. When he finally came back, just as we were ready to start play, he revealed to us that this fellow had in fact tried to convert him to his fundamentalist church, and also attempted to instruct him that many every day things (like merely looking at woman the wrong way for example) are sins of a most grievous nature. Beener later tracked down his Facebook page . As you can see Tyron certainly takes one of his favorite quotes quite literally: “There is no higher calling than to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and preach The Gospel in the open air."

The other major story of the day would also involve Beener. While we were all intrigued to discover which Beencent would show up today (would it be Gretzmaldi or Beenovalev?), tragically it was neither, but Beeni Salo instead. A leg tangling incident with Voser Dos, otherwise known as “The Robot of Destruction”, would result in Beener crashing to the ground hard slamming his hand against the concrete. This would end Been’s day at a respectable 5 games (better than 3). Only later though would we discover that Beencent had in fact suffered a fracture to his anatomical snuffbox region (i.e. the scaphoid bone). Now, you may find it hard to make any connection between these two incidents, and for someone with a scientifically oriented mind this would be a difficult task indeed. But for someone of a more superstitious nature, perhaps with a sense of Black Magic even, they may indeed see a link; perhaps Tyron’s God was indeed a vengeful God, perhaps his smiting churned some gears in the great winds of fate… Of course, such a suggestion would never hold water with this humble scribe, yet for those who succumb to it the anomaly of Black Magic can never quite be fully discounted.*

Aside from that, a solid day of intense hockey was played which featured Al between the pipes again and Dom’s first time on blades in a while. Despite some low shot totals in early games, the final game would see both goalies vindicated by making save after save in an hour long grindfest, which was also one of the most intense games in recent memory. Look for more VRH action as this summery weather continues.

* Note: all the religious and black magic talk is largely an inside joke and not meant to be taken seriously or offend in any way.

Follow Burton Hockey on Twitter @burtonhockey
Visit Burton Hockey on Facebook

Another day, another massive number for Alex, as the Blueberry picked up .854 on 111 saves with a shutout. After some rather quick games for the most of the session, the final game saw Alex make 37 saves and Sam make 32. Alex went from .815 to .854 in the final game; Sam climbed all the way from .628 in Game 7 to finish at .704. On the scoresheet, it was another close session with Andrew ending up ahead at 8G-13A. Tying for second with 17 points each were Marcus (11G-6A) and Dom (9G-8A; his first-ever second star). Barlow and Rob were just two points behind, and it is feasible that both rob and Vincent could have placed in the star points had they played the entire session.

Game Scores:
Bernie Oliver Dom Marcus Alex def. Andrew Vincent Jordan Sam Rob* (Game 2 only) 5-4 5-0
Marcus Oliver Rob Vincent Alex def. Andrew Bernie Dom Jordan Sam 5-2
Marcus Oliver Rob Vincent Sam vs. Andrew Bernie Dom Jordan Alex 5-4 3-5
Jordan Andrew Dom Bernie Alex def. Marcus Oliver Rob Sam 5-3 5-2

And now, a big stats wrap-up following another BUSH/VRH doubleheader:

Season Stats: Andrew is just seven points from tipping over the 400-point mark, and now enjoys his first 100-plus-point lead over second-place Oliver... Marcus moves past tony into third, 234-230... Lee is catching Rob for fifth, 212-201... Kyle enters the top ten for the first time all year, while Terryn enters the top 15 and James is now in the top 20... Marcus passes Tony for second in goals, 133-131... Oliver leads Lee for fourth in goals, 118-100... Rob needs five goals for 100; K.J. 18... Terryn passes the 50-goal mark... Behind the three assist leaders, we have a hot race for fourth between Bernie (101), Marcus (101), Tony (99), and Lee (91)... Andrew needs 21 shots on goal for 1,000... Marcus passes Oliver for third in shots on goal with 586... Jordan takes the shooting percentage lead from Kyle at 26.72%, while Terryn passes K.J. for third and Lee knocks Marcus out of the top five at 23.50%... Alex passes Dom for the lead in saves, 1,853-1,836... Rob and Alex pass Tony for sixth and seventh in games played... Alex is one shutout behind Dom for the season lead, 5-4... Lee passes Oliver for fifth in three-star points with 75... Alex passes Dom for the lead in goalie star points, 170-165, but Dom leads Alex for the lead in total star points, 180-170... Marcus ties Sam for fourth in total star points, 95-95... It’s been a long climb back since the May SuperSession, but Kyle is back on top of the PPG chart, 3.18-3.10 over Terryn... Lee moves ahead of K.J. for fourth, 2.89-2.87... Kyle passes Brad for third in APG, 1.55-1.50, while Terryn moves ahead of Bates into fifth at 1.42... Terryn drops below Lee to fifth in shots-per-game, 7.09-6.94...

SDF/GDF: For the 20th time ever, Kyle leads the SDF, and his lead is massive. His rating of 145.2032 is the fifth-highest ever. Only Pat Elischer has ever beaten that score... Behind Kyle, lots of things are changing. With K.J. falling down a bit, tony now moves into second ahead of Andrew. K.J. is fourth followed by Terryn, Lee and Marcus...Alex’s reign atop the GDF continues as he moves into third place on the all-time rankings-led list at 26, tied with Nathan... Alex has led ten in a row, one short of Seamus; record set last year...

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

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs 40 points for 2,700; Oliver needs 20 for 2,500... Bernie is 26 points behind Seamus for fourth... Kyle is six points behind Lorne for sixth in all-time points, 22 behind Bernie for fifth, and needs 12 points to hit the 1,500 mark... K.J. needs 24 points for 1,200... Rob needs 22 points for 700... Nathan needs 20 points for 600, but Andrew is just three behind him for 17th... Kyle is 24 goals behind Stefan for fourth all-time... K.J. becomes the seventh player with 700 goals and needs 17 to tie Seamus for sixth... Rob needs four goals for 300... K.J. needs 24 assists for 500... Rob needs 18 assists for 400... Lee becomes the first player to take 7,000 shots on goal... Kyle needs 31 shots on goal for 4,000... Rob passes Joern for 12th in shots... Andrew is the 17th player with 1,500 shots... Jordan passes Jason Leung for fourth in shooting percentage... Alex needs 97 saves to become the second goalie with 5,000... Nathan is 13 saves behind Laird for third... K.J. becomes the 11th player to play 500 games; Graeme needs 11; Dom needs 17; Kyle needs 18... Andrew plays his 200th game... Alex passes Chris for third in games goaltended with 284, nine behind Laird for second... Sam needs four games goaltended for 100... Alex records his 18th shutout... Terryn becomes the 28th player with 100 three-star points... Kyle becomes the fourth player with 800 total star points... Lee now has 99 career 15-pointers... Kyle is one 15-pointer behind Lorne for third with 57... Rob and Andrew tie Pat for ninth in 15-pointers with 23; Graeme reaches 12, Jordan reaches 20, and Marcus reaches 15; Nathan and Terryn are at ten and nine, respectively... K.J. and Marcus both have six 15-pointers in a row; Dom has four straight; Terryn and Lee have three... Andrew passes Justin for ninth in 20-pointers with 17... Terryn has five career 20-pointers including back-to-back ones... K.J. has four straight ten-goal sessions... Lee has three straight ten-goal sessions, as does Terryn... Andrew ties Lorne for sixth in ten-assisters with 17... Teryyn pots his fifth ten-assister; James his second... Alex takes down another major record with his 11th consecutive .800 session, beating Justin’s record of ten that had stood since 2009... Alex ties Nathan for third in .810s with 24, including 11 in a row... Alex ties Dom for second in .820s with 23, including ten straight... Alex ties Dom for the lead in .840s with 16 including six in a row... Alex ties Shem’s record of four straight .850s... Alex’s incredible 80-saver streak goes to 24; Sam’s goes to three... Alex is two 90-savers behind Dom for the all-time lead with 34; he has a record-tying 12 in a row... Alex ties Dom for the lead in 100-savers with 30; he also has 12 of those in a row... Alex ties Dom for the lead in 110-savers with 24... Sam plays his 13th straight session; James and Andrew their ninth; Dom his sixth; Lee his fifth... By passing Dom in 2011 saves with 1,853 and in 2011 goalie star points with 170, Alex now has the fifth-highest single-season totals ever in those categories.