Tuesday night at the Nakusp Arena would be rather interesting, for it would be the first Arena session without founder Zac Wethal, away for the day on business. With five different sessions scoring leaders after three sessions, who would emerge as a dominant scoring force tonight? One thing was certain heading in: in goal, Brodie Yano was on a hot streak, backing up his .852 Thursday night in the Arena with a massive 144 saves in Sunday’s first BUSH session of the year. Would his run of excellence continue? Also transitioning from Sunday in Burton would be Laird Bilinski, making his debut performance at the Arena. How would he fare on the big rink with big nets?

It was time for the sixth session of roller hockey in eight days (3 Arena, 2 VRH, 1 BUSH), and as the bodies piled into the increasingly fetid dressing room, it was apparent that it was going to be huge. Joining the fray tonight would be Terryn Stenseth in his Arena debut, Luke Krbyla, making his first roller hockey appearance in three years, first-timers and Falcons vets Jacob Laplante and Brett Zeleznik, and Andy Kieran in his first time on skates since the 2010 DecaSession. James Hewlitt would make his return from an ankle injury last week, and K.J. O’Connor would be back on skates after resting his back in goal on Sunday. And, of course, how could we not mention Ryan Struck on skates in a session for the first time since June 2000? (To put that in perspective, Dugan McInnes would have been, well, we won’t answer that). Once the late arrivals made it in for Game 2, an astounding 24 players would be in action tonight; the most ever for a regular session and second only to the 25 players on the first day of the DecaSession.

Blue Team:
0. Dylan Hascarl
1. Andy Kieran
2. K.J. O’Connor
3. Kyle Grenier
4. Lee Orr
4. Kris James (goal)
6. Jacob Laplante
8. Terryn Stenseth
10. Luke Krbyla
11. Ryan Struck
16. Kalum Stevens (games 2,3)

White Team:
1. Laird Bilinski (goal, 2,3)
1. Levi Cordingley
2. Ryan Bateman
3. Nathyn McInnes
6. Brett Zeleznik
7. Kellan Nishida
7. Tristin Sinclair (2)
8. Ryan MacDonald
10. Andrew Likness
11. James Hewlitt
15. Dugan McInnes
29. Laine Weighill
35. Brodie Yano (goal, 1)

Laird would be late getting in from Burton, arriving at the 1-1 point Game 1, so it would be Kris James donning the pads for Team Blue against Brodie for Team White. And Laird would be left waiting for some time, as the first game dragged on for an intense 47 minutes. Any questions as to how Kris would fare in net were answered quickly as he proved to be up to the task. As for Brodie, he found a level even beyond last Thursday as despite a 2-to-1 shooting ratio in favour of Blue, the score remained even all game. It was the K.J.-Kyle-Struck combo that eventually did him in, the 41-20 shot total in Game 1 was simply too much to overcome as Blue would take a hardfought 5-4 win. Brodie, however, was quite content with his .878 in a first-star performance. Laird swapped in, and Brodie enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing on the bench.

Ryan MacDonald had score the last two goals of Game 1 for White and would kick off Game 2 in similar fashion on a James assist. While Game 2 wasn’t quite as long as Game 1, though not by much, the intensity was ratcheted up another level as Andrew came alive on the scoresheet for White. On the Blue side, Terryn was getting plenty of scoring chances but couldn’t find his way through the burly Ukrainian from the south side of Burton in net. K.J. and Kyle continued their scoring ways here as K.J. would have four points in this game and Kyle would have three. Picking up his first two career points was Jacob with a goal and an assist, and Brett would also pick up his first two points for White in this game. Again, it would come down to a golden goal before Blue took home another 5-4 victory. Shots were a bit more even in this game, 35-29 in favour of Blue with both Laird and Kris feasting on rebounds.

95 minutes into the session, we were only at the start of Game 3. Highlights from this game included an attempted Andy shot on Laird in which he wound up missing the puck due to exhaustion at the end of a shift, leaving it wide open for Ryan MacDonald to swipe it and take it all the way in for a picture-perfect breakaway goal on Kris. The next goal saw Terryn finally get one past Laird as he tipped home a booming Kalum slapshot from the point. At 4-3 Blue, a disallowed goal for White led to the final play of the day – a five-shot sequence that saw Andy, K.J., and Kyle each get shots in on Laird before Ryan Struck was there to cash in the final rebound.

With the huge number of players, three fabulous goaltenders, and a heightened level of intensity, this was certainly the best Arena League session yet, and the next one cannot come soon enough.

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The goalies were the true stars today, with all three breaking .820. The goalies for Team White faced a barrage of shots. In his lone game, Brodie continued his hot run, walking off with a career-best .878 despite the loss; the best goaltending session seen in the arena to date and second-best overall in Burton Hockey this year. Laird made a smooth transition to the Arena game with .851 and 57 saves in two games as he becomes the first player to goaltend in all three leagues (plus interleague action as well). Over in the Blue net, Kris’ debut in goal was nothing to sneeze at, as he posted .822 with 51 saves in a stellar rookie effort. These are the three best goaltending sessions seen in the Arena to date. Over on the scoresheet, it’s unsurprising that Blue players finished 1-2-T3 considering that the team won every game. K.J. posted 11P in the three games, also leading in goals with 6. Backed by 29 shots on goal (an Arena record), linemate Kyle finished second with 9P including 6A. Tying for third place were Drew, White’ top scorer with 4G-2A, and Ryan Struck, with the coach notching his first ever star points at 3G-3A. Also putting up numbers tonight for White was Ryan MacDonald with 4G-1A.

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

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Ryan Bateman 1/1 (100.00%)
James Hewlitt 1/1 (100.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 1/1 (100.00%)
Lee Orr 1/1 (100.00%)
Laine Weighill 1/1 (100.00%)
Nathyn McInnes (75.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 5/8 (62.50%)
Kyle Grenier 3/5 (60.00%)
Andrew Likness 3/6 (50.00%)
Levi Cordingley 1/2 (50.00%)
Dylan Hascarl 0/1 (0.00%)
Ryan MacDonald 0/1 (0.00%)
Kellan Nishida 0/1 (0.00%)
Dugan McInnes 0/2 (0.00%)
Jacob Laplante 0/7 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
Kyle Grenier 2182 (+29)
K.J. O’Connor 2133 (+67)
Terryn Stenseth 1986 (+16)
Andrew Likness 1944 (+120)
Ryan Struck 1925 (+134)
Kellan Nishida 1888 (+19)
Ryan Bateman 1881 (-112)
James Hewlitt 1834 (+56)
Lee Orr 1827 (-79)
Dylan Hascarl 1806 (-65)
Andy Kieran 1782 (-47)
Nathyn McInnes 1739 (-18)
Levi Cordingley 1716 (-3)
Tristin Sinclair 1700 (-118)
Kalum Stevens 1699 (+7)
Laine Weighill 1663 (-129)

Provisional Elo Ratings
Jacob Laplante 1885 (n/a)
Ryan MacDonald 1870 (+133)
Brett Zeleznik 1847 (n/a)
Luke Krbyla 1768 (-37)
Dugan McInnes 1684 (-106)

Season Stats: Kyle becomes the first Arena/BUSH player to enter the top five in points, tying Darrel Voser at 55 points... Kyle leads K.J. 30-29 in the Arena with Zac third at 25 and Andrew fourth at 22... Kyle also ties Darrel for fifth in goals at 24... K.J. holds the Arena goals lead at 16... Kyle ties Barlow and Darrel for fifth in assists at 31 and takes the Arena with 17, one ahead of Zac followed by Dylan at 14... Kyle moves from sixth to fourth in shots at 153 and now holds a commanding shot count lead in the Arena with 79 ahead of K.J. (45), Dylan (41), and Zac (40)... Brodie’s save percentage on the year jumps to .824 as he passes Bron for third in saves with 275... Brodie sits fourth overall in games goaltended with 15... Kyle moves to third overall in three-star points at 35 behind Andrew Smart (45) and Stefan Klopp (40) with K.J. tied for fifth at 30... Brodie easily leads the Arena League in goalie star points with 25 and he has 40 between the Arena and BUSH, putting him second overall... K.J. ties Smart for second in total star points with 45, five ahead of Brodie and Stefan... K.J. moves into fifth in PPG at 2.64 and fourth in GPG at 1.45... Kyle passes Zac for fourth in APG at 1.43... Kyle moves from fifth to third in shots-per-game at 6.95... Only Andrew, Lee, and Kyle have played all 15 Arena games this season... Brodie passes K.J. for second in saves-per-game at 18.33... Brodie's .878 is the best session in the Arena this year and second-best overall; Laird's .851 is the fifth-best overall.

SDF/GDF: On the SDF, VRH’s Nick Jornitz leads for a second straight ranking, with K.J. flying into second from seventh... A big plummet from Bates (third to ninth) tonight helps Kris, Zac, Kyle, and Darrel move up within the top ten... Also taking big hits are Dylan (ninth to 15th) and Tony (fifth to 22nd due to inactivity)... Big movers down below include Terryn, James, and Ryan MacDonald... On the GDF, Bron leads for a second straight session but Brodie has narrowed the gap to a very small margin, indeed... Carter passes Sam Lam for fifth...

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

On the All-Time Front: Kyle is 31 points behind Seamus for fifth... K.J. becomes the eight players with 1,200 points... Andrew needs 12 points for 100... Kyle ties Lorne for fourth in goals with 900 even... K.J. is 17 goals behind Seamus for sixth all-time... K.J. needs six assists to become the ninth player with 500... Brodie passes Justin for 11th in career goaltending... Laird puts his career save percentage back above .800... Laird needs to goaltend four more games to become the second goalie to play 300... Laird ties Justin for sixth in goalie star points with 315 and trails Pat Elischer 410-405 for 13th in total star points... Kris posts his first .820 in his first session in net... Brodie has three straight .820s, all within the past six days... Laird ties Bron Mach and Nathan Robson for sixth in .850s with nine... Brodie has his second .850 and his first session above .860... Lee plays his eleventh consecutive session.