Tonight would be a strong test of how players invested in Monday and Wednesday night softball would fare playing a hockey session in between on Tuesday. Making their Arena League debuts tonight would be Andrew Martens and Colton Dachwitz. With no Laird Bilinski around, Kris James would play the role of Jimmy Howard in net, making his second start in goal of the year against powerhouse Brodie Yano. All-time Burton Hockey games played leader Oliver Koth-Kappus was in town but could not be lured out; we’ll be working on him for next week.

Blue Team:
0. Brodie Yano (goal)
0. Andrew Martens
2. Tyson Cann
3. Andy Kieran
4. Lee Orr
6. K.J. O’Connor
7. Colton Dachwitz
10. Laine Weighill
11. Nathyn McInnes
16. James Hewlitt
24. Levi Cordingley

White Team:
0. Kris James (goal)
1. Brett Zeleznik
1. Dylan Hascarl
2. Ryan Bateman
3. Kyle Grenier
4. Kalum Stevens
7. Andrew Likness
8. Terryn Stenseth
10. Kellan Nishida
11. Luke Krbyla
15. Dugan McInnes
29. Zac Wethal

Game 1 saw White outshoot Blue by a count of 34 to 16. With Brodie in net, however, this shot count would not be enough this time around. The game’s first goal would go to the blue team’s Jamie as he scored on a fantastic breakaway. Led by two points each from Nate and K.J., Blue would take Game 1 by a score of 5-3 as Brodie was too much for White. This would be the last weak point for Kris, as he would go .878 from here on in.

Game 2 settled into a long slog after the 1-1 mark, with a 20-minute period of the game where no side was able to score. Once again, White was throwing plenty of rubber at Brodie and hew was turning it away, including one section where he stopped six shots from four different players in 30 seconds. Kris was equal to the task this time as well with K.J. and Nate being his primary victims here. The scoreless segment was highlighted by numerous occasions where the puck failed to cooperate with the concrete, spinning erratically on end and/or bouncing on far too many occasion. The deadlock would finally be broken by Grenier catching Brodie off-guard, casually cashing in the rebound five-hole on a big slapper from Kalum. The goal broke the game wide open, and within four minutes White had evened the series with a 5-1 win.

The final game was the shortest and also the only game where the shots were relatively even. K.J. would score three points in this game, forming an excellent combo with Laine who had two goals of his own for Blue. White’s top offensive players in Game 3 were Kellan, Kyle, Drew, Bates, and Brett; each one of them would have two points in the final game. White got up early 3-1 before Blue tied it. The turning point came at 3-3 when Andy, who had been quite proficient at blocking shots tonight, blocked a Kellan shot from the point only to then accidentally kick it past his own goalie, Brodie, and give White a 4-3 lead. White would go on to win 5-4, and with Brodie having to leave right away the session was abruptly called. Astoundingly, 21 different players were able to post points in the three games tonight.

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When it all panned out after Game 3, Kyle and K.J. would share first star with just six points each, the lowest-ever leading total for a multi-game session (the last time a total of six points or less led a session was when Joern Hornhardt pointed out in a one-game session at Burnaby’s Confederation Park in December 2005). With two goals in the final game, Laine finished at 3G-2A to grab his first ever star points, sharing third place with Kellan (also at 3G-2A). It was another stellar effort in goal for Brodie as he made 76 saves to finish at .854; the fourth straight Arena session in which he’s broken .850. In the White goal, Kris didn’t face the volume of shots that Brodie did but he certainly stopped them when it mattered most, recovering nicely from Game 1 to finish at a career-high .825. Together with the rolling puck, they both made it quite hard to score today.

Game Scores:
White def. Blue 3-5 5-1 5-4

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Ryan Bateman 1/1 (100.00%)
Levi Cordingley 1/1 (100.00%)
James Hewlitt 1/1 (100.00%)
Kellan Nishida 3/4 (75.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 3/4 (75.00%)
Dylan Hascarl 4/6 (66.67%)
Andrew Likness 1/2 (50.00%)
Dugan McInnes 1/2 (50.00%)
Colton Dachwitz 2/5 (40.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 2/5 (40.00%)
Andrew Martens 0/1 (0.00%)
Lee Orr 0/1 (0.00%)
Laine Weighill 0/1 (0.00%)
Nathyn McInnes 0/4 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
Kyle Grenier 2208 (+32)
K.J. O’Connor 2197 (+37)
Zac Wethal 1975 (-109)
Andrew Likness 1972 (+11)
Ryan Bateman 1949 (+24)
Nathyn McInnes 1947 (+72)
Terryn Stenseth 1898 (+54)
Kellan Nishida 1878 (+152)
Dylan Hascarl 1873 (-62)
Laine Weighill 1838 (+175)
Lee Orr 1819 (-31)
James Hewlitt 1762 (+6)
Kalum Stevens 1760 (+7)
Levi Cordingley 1748 (+14)
Brett Zeleznik 1729 (+26)
Luke Krbyla 1718 (-113)
Andy Kieran 1654 (-73)
Tyson Cann 1620 (-54)
Dugan McInnes 1553 (-76)

Provisional Elo Ratings
Colton Dachwitz 1789 (n/a)
Andrew Martens 1671 (-83)

Season Stats: With so little movement today, not too much changes in the season scoring race...Kyle passes Darrel Voser for fourth overall in scoring, 69-65, but remains tied with K.J. for the Arena lead at 44, five ahead of Zac... The biggest mover tonight was Kellan, who went from ninth to seventh in Arena scoring... Kyle passes Darrel for fifth in overall goals, 31-30, but remains one behind K.J. for the Arena lead, 21-20... Kyle ties Ryan Disterheft for fourth in assists with 38... Zac remains tied with Kyle for the Arena assist lead at 24 with K.J. one behind and Drew Likness four behind... Lee becomes the eleventh player with 100 shots on goals this year... Kyle becomes the first player to put 100 shots on net in the Arena... Zac now has enough shots on goal to qualify for the shooting percentage category and sits fourth at 22.72% despite no goals tonight... Bates should take over the shooting percentage category with his next session... At .824, Kris moves up to fourth overall in goaltending and second in the Arena League... Brodie sits third in saves at 447, trailing Dom Voser by 18 for second... Only Likness and Grenier have played all 23 Arena games; Lee has only missed one... Brodie passes Sam Lam for third in games goaltended with 23; 16 of those have been in the Arena so far... Kyle and K.J. take over joint possession of first in the three-star race with 50, five ahead of Andrew Smart... All 50 of K.J.’s three-star points come from the Arena... Brodie takes the goalie star point lead from Dom, 70-55... Brodie leads K.J. in total star points, 70-65... K.J. passes Zac for fifth overall and first in the arena in APG at 1.21... Brodie takes over the overall lead in saves-per-game at 19.43... Kris sits second in the Arena and fifth overall at 16.33... Brodie’s .854 is the fifth-best session of the year.

SDF/GDF: Nick Jornitz’s reign atop the SDF is over, as he is dethroned by K.J. who takes the top position for the fourth time in his career and first time since August 2009... Sam Lam’s massive drop due to inactivity brings Jesse Cann to third and Andrew Smart to fourth... Zac drops one spot to seventh... The absent Ollie rises four sports to 11th... Kellan reenters the top 20 in 18th... Laine takes a massive jump from 43rd to 27th... On the GDF Brodie increases his regained lead over Bron even more this week while Kris is the hot mover on the chart, jumping up to third as he crosses the session minimum.

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 all-time point lead over Oliver Koth-Kappus barely moves and sits at 45 points... Kyle is 17 points behind Seamus for fifth... K.J. is 12 goals behind Seamus for sixth... Brodie becomes the 16th goalie with 1,000 saves... Kyle is six games behind Nathan Robson for 12th... K.J. is five three-star points behind Andrew Smart for seventh at 460... Brodie passes Lorne for 14th in goalie star points at 130... Kyle is five points behind Lorne for third in total star points, 875-870... Brodie records his tenth career .810 session and his fifth in a row... Kris has back-to-back .820s to start his career; Brodie has five .820s in a row... Brodie has three straight .850s and is the fifth player in history to do so... Lee plays his 13th consecutive session while Oliver Koth-Kappus’ streak, carried over from VRH, ends at 13... Kyle plays his seventh straight session while Brodie plays his sixth... Andrew Martens’ last Burton Hockey session was 30 March 2005 (7 years, 1 month, 22 days); the fifth-longest stretch between sessions ever.