After the blazing success of last week, it was time to do it again with the second session at the arena. Today would be a rare no-sub affair, as about half of last week’s roster was indeed in the building, but they were upstairs dressed in suits and ties at the year-end Falcons hockey banquet. They did all come down into the dressing room and BS with the boys before heading to the end-of-the-year shindig. Last week was such a success that a Thursday night session is now taking place as well, and of course Lee and Grenier are eager to get BUSH going for its 13th season. When you add the players from today with the regular players up at the banquet and the guys who wanted to make it tonight but couldn’t for whatever reason, that’s a solid 24-man pool of players. Things are really coming together for roller hockey in the valley.

Returning from last week would be Zac, Kyle, K.J., Carter, Andrew, and Lee (James injured his ankle, ending his year-long consecutive sessions of roller hockey streak at 11). Carter would be facing in net against one of the best goalies in the history of BUSH and a Commercial hockey mainstay, the great Brodie Yano. Another great goalie, the man who in fact leads Burton Hockey in all-time save percentage at .852, would be returning to the roller hockey fold tonight, but Taylor Reitmeier would be on skates for the first time ever. Joining him was Greyson Reitmeier (coming off a season with the Kootenay Ice major midget programme and another of the elite few on this site that can claim a profile on EliteProspects.com), the ball of fire known as Tristin Sinclair (if Red Bull decided to hold a Crashed Ice tournament in Nakusp, he’d probably win it; he’s also the first player who can be found both here and on Sherdog’s FightFinder), Garrit Krbyla (current holder of the record for most assists by a rookie in a session with 12), and the long-awaited roller hockey debut of Laine Weighill (between Shea and Laine Weighill and Dustin and Brandon Blair, there has obviously been some sort of Weighill-based genetic engineering programme that produces nothing but high-end hockey players).

This fantastic line-up would have to, however, navigate through today’s abbreviated session. ‘Navigate’ is an intransitive verb originally meaning ‘to travel by water’, and that was a very appropriate definition for this session. It turns out that when cold, glazed concrete that’s been covered in ice all year is exposed to warmer, dry air, condensation begins to form within the concrete and eventually reaches the surface. In other words, the players had to deal with a slick wet surface on spinning rubber wheels. You can imagine how that turned out.

Blue Team:

0. Brodie Yano (goal)
3. Kyle Grenier
4. Greyson Reitmeier
6. Garrit Krbyla
9. Taylor Reitmeier
10. Laine Weighill

White Team:

1. Lee Orr
6. Zac Wethal
7. K.J. O’Connor
9. Andrew Likness
11. Tristin Sinclair
29. Carter Stenseth (goal)

While everyone waited for Carter to get his gear on, the rest of the gang took to the rink for the warm-up, and it was evident right away that today would be a battle not against each other but the playing surface. The first game was a comedy of errors, with as many passes seemingly made by fallen players swiping the puck ahead as far as they could reach their stick as there were made by players on two feet. No one was exempt; everyone had their difficulties trying to skate at full speed tonight. As a result, there were not a lot of shots on goal in Game 1 as everyone tried to figure out the rink. Play was dominated by White, with the front line of Zac, Andrew, and K.J. scoring on the first three shots of the game. Carter, meanwhile, saw little action until the last five minutes of the game, netting a rather improbably three-save shutout. Brodie also made three saves in Game 1; unfortunately, there were eight shots against him.

It was necessary to make a trade at this point, so K.J. and Garrit swapped sweaters. Immediately, the difference was felt as the teams evened out here. Still, K.J. would not be denied, as he sent another two goals home; this time against Carter. The Taylor-Laine back end factored in huge for Blue in this game as they each notched a goal and an assist. Grenier and Greyson also picked up points, and despite a rather closely-fought game, Brodie was able to rise to occasion and bring home Game 2 5-1 for Blue, highlighted by an acrobatic four-save sequence on Zac and Andrew.

Game 3 was the breaking point for the crew, with Grenier visibly upset at the wet conditions. The rink was only getting worse, and players were now having their legs come out from under them simply standing still. With Tristin now on the front line with Andrew and Zac, the trio peppered Brodie with shot after shot. Lee also got a few licks in this game, and Garrit found his stride here bombing pass after pass from the neutral zone right onto the forwards’ tape and setting up his teammates for beauty breakaways (well, what passed for breakaways tonight on this surface). White put another five behind Brodie, Carter picked up another shutout, and that was that – a short 45-minute session that was both fun and frustrating at the same time.

While everyone was disappointed with the level of moisture on the rink, everyone is still very eager to play. Not wasting any of the huge momentum, the arena gang will be back again Thursday night at 6:30. Hopefully the rink will be full aired out by then. It’s exciting to see the level of enthusiasm for the new league.

With K.J. getting shutout in Game 3, Zac would take the day with 4G-6A. Scoring 9P in the first two games, K.J. would finish just one assist behind. Andrew got in the three stars with 2G-4A, just edging out Tristin at 3G-2A. In goal, Carter grabbed his first two career roller-shutouts, and finished at a solid .806 even with the somewhat lopsided Game 2. Were it not for Game 1, Brodie would have been up near .800; instead it’s .703. It will very interesting to see how everyone does Thursday with more players on the benches and a full-length session (assuming the concrete cooperates).

Game Scores:
White def. Blue 5-0 1-5 5-0

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Zac Wethal 4/4 (100.00%)
Laine Weighill 1/1 (100.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 5/9 (55.56%)
Kyle Grenier 3/8 (37.50%)
Andrew Likness 3/10 (30.00%)
Lee Orr 0/1 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings

Kyle Grenier 2215 (-71)
K.J. O’Connor 2066 (+27)
Andrew Likness 1922 (+39)
Lee Orr 1901 (-75)

Provisional Elo Ratings
Zac Wethal 1944 (+72)
Tristin Sinclair 1840 (n/a)
Greyson Reitmeier 1803 (n/a)
Taylor Reitmeier 1803 (n/a)
Laine Weighill 1803 (n/a)
Garrit Krbyla 1744 (-39)

With stats from both VRH and the Arena League coming today, we’ve got much to go over in the stats summary tonight.

Season Stats: Stefan Klopp pulls out a little bit of a lead over Oliver Koth-Kappus in the season scoring race, 84-77. Ryan Disterheft remains solidly in third at 68 with Andrew Smart and Darrel Voser moving into a tie for fifth at 46... Nick Jornitz’s stellar rookie session puts him immediately in the top ten at 24 points... Despite playing just eight games so far compared to the 38 in VRH this year, the Arena crew are beginning to pepper the top 20, with K.J. leading the way in 13th at 18 points followed by Zac and Grenier at 16... Stefan takes the goal lead from Ryno, 41-37, with Oliver at 34 and Darrel passing Bernie Koth-Kappus for fourth, 19-18... K.J. lead the Arena with 10 goals... Stefan takes the assist lead from Oliver, 44-43... Andrew Smart leaps into third at 32, one ahead of Ryno, While Jordan Barlow and Darrel sit at 27... Andrew Likness and Zac Wethal leads the Arena with 10 each... Stefan leads Ryno in shots on goal by a narrow margin of 194-190 while Barlow jumps to fourth at 94 and K.J. leads the Arena League 28-27 over Zac... With none of the Arena at the minimum number of shots to qualify for shooting percentage yet, Oliver – yes, Oliver – leads at 21.66, narrowly ahead of Darrel at 21.59%... Dominik Voser closes Bron’s goaltending lead to .828-.818 while Stuart Hall and Carter Stenseth pass Sam Lam for third and fourth... Dom and Stu take the first two spots in saves with 359 and 311, respectively... Bernie leads Stefan and Oliver in games played, 39-38-38... Dom already has five shutouts this year; Carter and Stuart have two each... The ever-tight three-star point lead is shared between Stefan and Andrew Smart at 35, five head of Ryno. Watch what happens Thursday at the Arena to see who joins this cluster at the top, because eventually someone will have to lead multiple sessions in scoring this year (in nine sessions, we’ve had twelve different scoring leaders)... Dom is slowly walking away with the goalie star point lead at 50, which gives him the total star point lead as well... Nick Jornitz’s 24 points in the VRH session were the highest total seen this year; Andrew Smart’s 20 tied for fourth... Nick’s 17 goals also lead Burton this year and his 46 shots on goal rank second... Andrew Smart’s 14 assists in the VRH session are the top mark so far this year... Dom’s .836 was the third-best session of the year... Stuart’s 114 saves ranked second; Dom’s 107 ranked fourth... Dom’s 943 PPS was second-best so far this year; Stuart’s 923 was fifth.

SDF/GDF: Well, it wasn’t quite a full session tonight for the Arena League and so its players are still little short of full point value (that will happen next session), allowing the absent Sam Lam to grab the ranking lead for the first time ever, at least for a couple of days, ahead of the slightly slipping Smart... Despite not being at full point value, K.J. rockets up 12 spots to fourth and Zac does the same to go to tenth; it’s very likely that one of those two, Kyle Grenier, or Andrew Likness will be on top of the SDF after Thursday night... Over on the GDF, Bron Mach indeed hands his lead to the surging Dom Voser, with Stuart and Carter making healthy gains as well behind Sam in third.

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

On the All-Time Front: Just because Lee’s back in action doesn’t meaning he’s padding his all-time scoring lead. With just three points in two sessions, Oliver is just 37 points behind Lee now. For Lee, BUSH can’t come soon enough... Bernie becomes the fourth player with 1,600 points... K.J. needs six points for 1,200... Andrew Smart passes Rob Hajdu for 12th and needs two points for 800... Andrew is 24 points behind Pat Elischer for fourth in all-time VRH scoring... Grenier is 16 goals behind Lorne Bilinski for fourth in goals; K.J. is eleven goals behind Seamus for sixth... Smart is 14 goals behind Rob for 14th...Stefan is ten assists behind Seamus for fourth... K.J. needs 14 assists for 500... Smart passes Rob and Joern for 11th in all-time assists and is 14 behind Graeme Orr for tenth... Grenier needs four shots on goal to become the fourth player with 4,000... Jordan Barlow drops to sixth in shooting percentage behind Dylan Stevens... Dominik Voser needs four saves to become the first goalie with 7,500... K.J. is three games played behind Nathan Robson for tenth... Dom becomes the first goalie to goaltend 500 games (Laird Bilinski is a distant second at 293)... Dom’s two shutouts give him a Burton-leading 23 all-time... Stuart Hall gets his second career shutout, and Carter gets his first two which gives him one more than brother Terryn... Stefan passes Lorne for fourth in three-star points, 760-755... Dom reached .820 for the 30th time ever and passed Alex Elischer for the most .830s with 23... Dom has back-to-back 80-savers, as does Stuart for the first time... Stuart nets a 110-saver for the first time... Dom plays his 21st consecutive session in VRH... James Hewlitt’s consecutive session streak, split between BUSH and the Arena League, ends at eleven sessions after an ankle injury... The consecutive streaks of the VRH-exclusive Koth-Kappus brothers, however, move up to eleven; Lee’s goes to eight; Stefan Klopp’s to seven; Stuart Hall’s to five... Nick Jornitz’s 24 points yesterday in VRH were the third-highest total ever scored by a player in his rookie session; Nick’s 17 goals rank fourth for rookies.