Just nine days into the new league and they’re already scheduling Thursday sessions. This big question heading into Arena League III tonight was the condition of the playing surface. Plagued by moisture on Tuesday, the rink was thankfully back to normal tonight as another huge roster of 17 players suited up for a solid 90 minutes of hockey. Making their season debuts tonight were Kalum Stevens and Dugan McInnes. Looking for redemption in goal was Brodie Yano, coming off of an uncharacteristic .703 on Tuesday.

Blue Team:
2. Lee Orr
3. Kyle Grenier
4. Nathyn McInnes
6. Andrew Likness
8. Levi Cordingley
9. Lance Beingessner
10. Kalum Stevens
11. Ryan Bateman
29. Carter Stenseth (goal)

White Team:
4. Kris James
6. Laine Weighill
7. Kellan Nishida
8. Dylan Hascarl
10. Dugan McInnes
11. Tristin Sinclair
15. Zac Wethal
29. Brodie Yano (goal)

Right off the bat, Kyle and Bates got off to a strong start, each putting up a goal and an assist, but it was all White from there on in. It became obvious that Brodie was not going to be messed with tonight, as all night long shots from Kyle, Nate, and Drew were repeatedly turned away. Between the three of them, there would be only three goals on 51 shots. At the other end, the Kris-Dylan-Kellan combo got to work in the second half of this game, scoring three straight before Dugan cashed in a Wethal rebound to seal the game for White.

Despite continued even play (White was actually outshooting Blue 47-39 after two games), Brodie was not cooperating in this series, stonewalling Blue as White surged to a 4-0 lead in Game 2. Again, Kyle and Nathyn had the bulk of the shots in this game but couldn’t send anything home. A huge blast from the left point from Levi finally beat Brodie to get Blue on the board, and a Bateman-led surge got the score to 4-3 before White sent the clinching goal past Carter in what was one of the longer-feeling 25-minute games you’ll see with a very high intensity level. Brodie sat at .880 after two games.

Fueled by Kyle’s anger, Blue got off to a quick 3-0 start in Game 3 which saw Lee break though and begin to play more of an offensive role despite playing on defence. Lance would also fire one home from the point in Game 3. Despite the quick start, White would gnaw that lead down to nothing as Zac and Tristin stepped their games up and the Kris-Dylan-Kellan combo continued to pound away at Carter. This game would go down to the golden goal before White completed the comeback thanks to their high-scoring forwards and solid rushing defence from Laine and Tristin.

Game 4 went more quickly than the other three due to the proliferation of rebound shots; both Carter and Brodie were pretty good in this game. Ryan was once again the offensive bulwark for Blue and seems to be their only player that could consistently get shots past Brodie today. In the end, White just had too much for Blue today, and would complete the four-game sweep with a 5-3 win despite being outshot 81-73.

The roller hockey momentum continues with a jam packed weekend featuring the first BUSH session of the season on Sunday afternoon, VRH action from West Vancouver on Sunday, and of course back to the Arena again for Tuesday night at 6:30.

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

A tight three-way scoring battle all day ended up with Kris and Dylan tying at 13 points (6G-7A and 4G-9A) with Kellan close behind at 11 points (5G-6A). These are the first career star points for all three of these skaters, and once again, no one has been able to repeat on top this year (between 7 VRH sessions and 3 Arena sessions, we’ve had 14 different scoring leaders). Zac had a strong second half after taking off most of Game 2 with equipment woes and finished at 9 points; he probably would have been in the star points with another game. In goal, Brodie had a great night and posted the best session of his career at .852 (his 921 PPS nets him some first-star goalie points, the first to be awarded at the Arena), while Carter settled for .726. Kyle, Nate, and Drew were a lot better than their stats indicated; they just ran into Brodie tonight.

Game Scores:
White def. Blue 5-2 5-3 5-4 5-3

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Lee Orr 1/1 (100.00%)
Laine Weighill 3/4 (75.00%)
Dylan Hascarl 10/14 (71.43%)
Nathyn McInnes 8/15 (53.33%)
Ryan Bateman 1/2 (50.00%)
Kris James 2/5 (40.00%)
Andrew Likness 1/3 (33.33%)
Kellan Nishida 1/4 (25.00%)
Kyle Grenier 1/5 (20.00%)
Levi Cordingley 0/1 (0.00%)
Kalum Stevens 0/1 (0.00%)
Dugan McInnes 0/2 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings

Kyle Grenier 2154 (-61)
Ryan Bateman 1993 (+5)
Zac Wethal 1975 (+31)
Dylan Hascarl 1871 (+125)
Lee Orr 1861 (-40)
Andrew Likness 1824 (-98)

Provisional Elo Ratings
Kris James 1944 (+95)
Kellan Nishida 1869 (+95)
Tristin Sinclair 1818 (-22)
Laine Weighill 1792 (-11)
Nathyn McInnes 1757 (+65)
Levi Cordingley 1719 (-55)
Kalum Stevens 1692 (-87)
Lance Beingessner 1659 (-33)

Season Stats: With 25 points, Zac takes over the Arena scoring lead and moves into tenth overall between the two leagues despite the Arena League having played only 12 games to VRH’s 38. Kyle and Ryan are tied for second at the Arena with 21 followed by K.J. and Kris at 18... Ryan leads the Arena in goals with 11; Zac leads in assists with 16... Kyle becomes the first Arena player this season with 50 shots on goal... Once other Arena players reach the required level of shots, expect them to take over the shooting percentage lead; Ryan, for example, sits at a crazy 47.82% after 9 games... Brodie rockets over 100 points to .805 on the season, easily leading the Arena League and placing him third overall... Lee, Andrew, Kyle, Zac, and Carter are the only ones to have played all 12 Arena games so far... Brodie becomes the first goaltender to score star points in the Arena with a first star performance tonight... Zac is fifth overall in APG at 1.33... Brodie takes the Arena lead in saves-per-game with 13.57 and sits third overall... Brodie’s .852 is the best Arena session by a mile so far and ranks second-best between both leagues this year.

SDF/GDF: Thanks to the reversal on the scoresheet today plus the absence of K.J., Sam narrowly hangs on to the top spot on the SDF over Ryan, but some of the Arena Leaguers are making a run up the chart, most notably the two leaders tonight, Kris (who moves up 19 spots to sixth) and Dylan (who moves up 18 spots to ninth)... Zac also move up two spots to eighth... Taking big hits are Ryno (down four to tenth), Kyle (down three to twelfth), and Andrew Likness (down six to 18th after being largely held off the scoresheet)... Rob and Marcus fall out of the top twenty due to inactivity... A record 51 players are on this week’s chart... Dom Voser leads the GDF for a second consecutive ranking and 19th overall, tying him with K.J. for sixth all-time, but look who’s on the charge as Brodie leaps up to third. Brodie last led the GDF back in March of 2005.

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

On the All-Time Front: Lee’s lead over Oliver in the all-time scoring race is 40 (2,684-2,644)... Kyle trails Lorne Bilinski for fourth in goals, 900-886... Kyle becomes the fourth player with 4,000 shots on goal... Look for Ryan Bateman to enter the top ten in all-time shooting percentage within a session or two... Kyle falls behind Dallas Sinclair and Joe Chwachka to sixth in GPG at 1.84... Ryan drops from fifth to tenth in APG... Brodie reaches .810 for the sixth time but this is his first session ever above .820 (obviously, then, it’s his first career .850)... Lee’s consecutive session streak goes to nine.