The largest session ever, and not a single goalie to be found. As player after player streamed into the Arena dressing room, each one was asked to play goal to make up for the absent Brodie and Laird; each one steadfastly refused. Eventually Kyle and Kris (who himself was already ‘volunteered’ for goal his past two sessions) bit the bullet, and so began a mammoth, lighning-quick, 26-player session that would introduce Damin Devlin, Sean Harper, and Dane Olsen to the Arena League.

Blue Team:
0. Kris James (goal)
0. Ben Gardner (games 4-5)
1. Brett Zeleznik
2. James Hewlitt
3. Tyson Cann
4. Ryan MacDonald
6. Dylan Hascarl
7. Sean Harper (1-2)
7. Zac Wethal (3-5)
9. Kellan Nishida
10. Damin Devlin
11. Nathyn McInnes
16. Andy Kieran
24. Levi Cordingley

White Team:
1. Colton Dachwitz
1. Andrew Likness
2. K.J. O’Connor
3. Dane Olsen
4. Zac Wethal (1-2)
4. Sean Harper (3-5)
7. Ryan Bateman
8. Terryn Stenseth
10. Lance Beingessner (1-2)
11. Luke Krbyla
15. Dugan McInnes
17. Jacob LaPlante (2-5)
22. Kyle Grenier (goal)
29. Lee Orr

Right off the opening faceoff, the goals came fast and furious as White sent home two goals past Kris. The game would end in just 12 minutes as K.J., Bates, Zac, Lee, and Drew each picked up two points en route to a 5-2 win in which Kyle needed only eight save for the win. The lone highlight for Blue was a very nice goal for James. Game 2 was more of the same. Kyle spent almost the entire game in the classic Ken Dryden resting-on-stick pose as the K.J.-led cavalry peppered Kris with shots. Kyle saw no shots until the eight-minute mark, and would only need six for his first Arena shutout. Game 2’s best goal was a sweet tic-tac-toe from Lee to Terryn to K.J. The tale of the game was told best when the Blue line of Kellan, Dylan, and Ryan MacDonald got away for a 3-on-0 with Kyle out on his back, sprawled across the bottom of the net. A sure goal into a virtually empty net for Ryan was taken away by an insane glove-hand snatch from the seemingly out-of-commission Grenier that had both benches cheering.

A change was needed quickly, and so Zac was traded to Blue for Sean. It worked. Nate came alive in Game 3 with two goals, Damin found confidence on his skates, and Levi showed why he continues to rapidly develop into a handy two-way defenceman as they helped Blue get back in the series with a 5-2 win of their own. Game 4 continued the trend with Zac, Ryan, Dylan, and Damin leading the offensive charge. Despite White still getting more shots on goal, Blue were able to bring Kyle down to earth quite quickly with another 5-2 win. The game was marked by a number of big collisions, including Damin landing awkwardly on top of Kyle after blowing himself over with a massive slapshot, and Dylan and Andrew slamming into each other in between the hash marks in front of Kris.

Barely one hour into the session, and we’d already played four games. The final game would be the closest of the day (and at 19 minutes, the longest, which says a lot about tonight’s session). The game started with the most improbable of goals as Ben Gardner notched his first career goal with a five-hole shot past a stunned Kyle. While Zac, Nate, and Devin were able to score for Blue, it was three quick goals for white (Dane’s first of the night from K.J. followed by a couple by K.J. from Dane and Bates) that won the game. In just 80 minutes even, five games had been crammed into this wheeling, dealing evening.

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With 34 goals in 80 minutes divided among 17 players, you’d think the scoring would be fairly spread out, and it was. Nevertheless, K.J. held the lead all day and finished on top at 7G-5A, four points clear of Zac (3G-5A) in second with Zac’s efforts divided between Blue and White tonight. Bates came on strong at the end to finish third at 4G-3A, edging out Drew for the final star position by a point. Only K.J. and Bates even made it into double-digit shots-on-goal tonight. The goalies would probably like to forget this day; Kris beat Kyle .740-.694 despite Kyle’s Game 2 shutout.

Game Scores:
White def. Blue 5-2 5-0 2-5 2-5 5-3

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Dugan McInnes 3/3 (100.00%)
Ben Gardner 2/2 (100.00%)
Ryan Bateman 1/1 (100.00%)
Luke Krbyla 1/1 (100.00%)
Jacob LaPlante 1/1 (100.00%)
Dane Olsen 1/1 (100.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 3/4 (75.00%)
Andrew Likness 2/3 (66.67%)
Kellan Nishida 5/9 (55.56%)
Dylan Hascarl 3/6 (50.00%)
Damin Devlin 1/2 (50.00%)
Lee Orr 1/2 (50.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 2/5 (40.00%)
Levi Cordingley 2/6 (33.33%)
Colton Dachwitz 1/4 (25.00%)
Sean Harper 0/4 (0.00%)
Nathyn McInnes 0/4 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
K.J. O’Connor 2233 (+36)
Zac Wethal 2062 (+87)
Ryan Bateman 2031 (+82)
Andrew Likness 2030 (+58)
Nathyn McInnes 1977 (+30)
Dylan Hascarl 1935 (+62)
Lee Orr 1905 (+86)
Terryn Stenseth 1889 (-9)
Kellan Nishida 1878 (0)
Levi Cordingley 1868 (+120)
Ryan MacDonald 1847 (+26)
Jacob LaPlante 1823 (-104)
Dane Olsen 1743 (+42)
Brett Zeleznik 1714 (-15)
Luke Krbyla 1708 (-10)
James Hewlitt 1672 (-90)
Lance Beingessner 1654 (-75)
Andy Kieran 1565 (-89)
Tyson Cann 1544 (-76)
Dugan McInnes 1501 (-52)

Provisional Elo Ratings
Damin Devlin 1835 (n/a)
Sean Harper 1753 (n/a)
Colton Dachwitz 1747 (-42)
Ben Gardner 1624 (-53)

Season Stats: With Kyle playing in goal, K.J. took the opportunity to take the Arena scoring lead. He sits tied for sixth overall with Andrew Smart at 61 points and leads Zac 56-47 in the Arena followed by Kyle (44) and Bates (39)... K.J. jumps from tenth to seventh in goals at 28; that leads the Arena by eight over Kyle and Bates... Zac takes sole possession of the Arena assist lead at 29, one ahead of K.J. and five ahead of Drew... bates leads all of Burton Hockey in shooting percentage at 31.25, followed by K.J. at 28.57; Zac sits fourth at 24.00... Kris falls from fourth to seventh in goaltending and from second to third in the Arena behind Laird... K.J. now leads in three-star points (65) and total star points (80); Zac enters the top five in three-star points with 40... K.J. falls out of the top five in APG...

SDF/GDF: K.J.’s big win tonight solidifies his lead atop the SDF for a second straight week and 20th overall (sixth all-time)... No movement whatsoever in the top tenThe big session in goal for Bron in Sunday’s VRH session moves him ahead of Brodie to take the top spot on the GDF for the eleventh time while Kris takes a drop from third to sixth after tonight... Dom’s huge Sunday session pushed him ahead of Stuart into third.

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

On the All-Time Front: Oliver still hasn’t shown up to an Arena session, so Lee’s all-time point lead increases to 50... Bates moves into the top 40 in points and assists... K.J. is five goals behind Seamus for sixth... Kyle records his first career shutouts... K.J. passes Andrew Smart for seventh in three-star points, 475-465... Lee falls behind Robert Rogers to third in shots per game at 7.64... Kris’ .820 streak ends at two... Lee plays consecutive session number 14; Kyle is at eight; K.J., Kellan, Terryn, Nathyn, Levi, and Dugan are at five; Brodie’s streak ends at six.