Tonight had ‘wide-open’ written all over it from the start. Even with 20 skaters tonight, it felt right from the beginning as though there was potential to have the highest-scoring session yet in the Arena. Indeed, that is exactly what would go down in the last session of roller leading up to the July long weekend. Thank goodness for indoor hockey this year, because outdoor hockey has been all but impossible this season thanks to a solid month of rain that ranks among the wettest in Arrow Lakes history. As the gang played inside, toasty and dry, and Nathyn collected the rink money the session rather than the absent Zac (who would pop up later with the junior Wethal in hand to catch the last two games), a torrential downpour drowned the valley outside

Blue Team:
0. Andy Kieran
1. Garrit Krbyla (goal)
2. Dugan McInnes
3. James Hewlitt
4. Ryan Bateman
6. K.J. O’Connor
8. Terryn Stenseth
9. Colton Dachwitz
11. Kyle Grenier (games 1-3)
11. Dane Olsen (4-6)
16. Jesse Cann (1-5)
24. Levi Cordingley (1-4)

White Team:
0. Kalum Stevens
1. Carter Stenseth (goal)
2. Kellan Nishida
3. Lee Orr
4. Kris James
6. Nathyn McInnes
9. Zach Friedenberger
10. Lance Beingessner
11. Dane Olsen (1-3)
11. Kyle Grenier (4-6)
15. Ryan MacDonald
29. Brett Zeleznik

Carter would return in goal to do battle against Garrit Krbyla, making his goaltending debut in the Arena and only his second goaltending appearance overall (his first appearance last year, maskless, resulted in a smashed-in nose courtesy of a Kyle Grenier slapshot). Fun fact: Garrit also holds the record for most assists in one session by a rookie with 12. Finally, Kris would actually get to skate!

There were some worries that the sticks-in-the-middle produced team roster that were too lopsided in favour of Blue, and those worries would be justified as four games were peeled off in forty minutes thanks to a Blue wave of offence that left Carter reeling. A goal and assist from Lee would not be enough for White in Game 1 as the K.J.-Colton juggernaut scored early and often, leading Blue to a 5-2 victory. Game 2 would be more of the same – exactly the same, in fact, with another 5-2 Blue win. K.J. had seven points in two games; Colton five. Counting the first goal of Game 3, the K.J.-Colton-Terryn line had four goals on one shift. For White, the lone highspots were the now-standard highlight-reel goal from Ryan MacDonald and Kris’ first goal since getting to play on skates again.

After another 5-1 bashing from Blue, poor Carter had only 15 saves on 30 shots through three games (Garrit himself only had 16 saves, but on far fewer shots). Kyle volunteered himself for a trade in order to help balance out the teams, and so he swapped #11 sweaters with Dane for the rest of the evening. Initially, it did nothing, as Blue took yet another 5-2 victory in Game 4 (three assists from Bates here); a fourth victory just 40 minutes into the session. The turning point of the day, however, would finally come near the end of Game 4 when Levi injured himself in a collision with the boards behind Carter and removed himself from the session. For whatever reason, Blue was never the same from this point on. A driven Kyle would begin driving hard to the net in Game 5 and get White ahead for the first time all day.

Fuelled by assist after assist from Kalum, Lee suddenly turned on the afterburners and poured in six points in the final two games. While Blue were still quite competitive, White would take the final two games 5-3, 5-2. Perhaps the funniest moment came in Game 6 (the first Game 6 in Arena League history), when K.J. realised he was sitting on 14 points. Looking to become the first player to record a 15-pointer in the Arena, he refused to come off the rink for ten minutes while Terryn and Bateman screamed over and over for him to come off. Finally, Terryn switched on for Colton. He hit the post on his first shot, and K.J. cashed in the rebound for a goal to make it 4-2 White, returning to the bench with a giant grin on his face. The timing was perfect: White would immediately score off of a Lee faceoff win to end the game.

Tonight was not the best night for the goalies, but it was still a lot of fun once the teams evened out in games 5 and 6. With the Koth-Kappus brothers back in town and the weather clearing up later in the week, it looks as though BUSH action has a distinct possibility of taking place in Burton next Monday in addition to the standard Arena session on Tuesday.

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K.J.’s historic first 15-pointer in the arena (9G-6A) nabs him first star, with partner-in-crime Colton (7G-4A) grabbing second in his best session to date. Behind them was a logjam of players (Bateman, Grenier, Kalum, and Lee) tying for third at 9P. In goal, Garrit’s .738 was a big step up (.108 better, in fact) from his debut last year where he suffered the smashed nose from the big Grenier slapshot. In the other goal, Carter’s had better nights for sure.

Game Scores:
Blue def. White 5-2 5-2 5-1 5-2 3-5 2-5

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Colton Dachwitz 2/2 (100.00%)
Lee Orr 2/2 (100.00%)
Ryan MacDonald 1/1 (100.00%)
Brett Zeleznik 1/1 (100.00%)
Kyle Grenier 3/4 (75.00%)
Kalum Stevens 7/10 (70.00%)
Dane Olsen 2/3 (66.67%)
Terryn Stenseth 7/11 (63.64%)
Kellan Nishida 7/14 (50.00%)
Kris James 1/2 (50.00%)
Dugan McInnes 2/6 (33.33%)
Nathyn McInnes 2/8 (25.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 2/9 (22.22%)
Ryan Bateman 1/8 (12.50%)
Levi Cordingley 0/3 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
K.J. O’Connor 2295 (+30)
Kyle Grenier 2213 (-17)
Ryan Bateman 2052 (+34)
Zac Wethal 2041 (-21)
Lee Orr 2021 (+54)
Colton Dachwitz 1956 (+136)
Jesse Cann 1947 (-82)
Terryn Stenseth 1946 (+28)
Kris James 1933 (-11)
Nathyn McInnes 1902 (+5)
Kalum Stevens 1879 (+119)
Kellan Nishida 1866 (-45)
Ryan MacDonald 1843 (+36)
Levi Cordingley 1740 (-122)
Dane Olsen 1703 (-40)
James Hewlitt 1679 (-28)
Zach Friedenberger 1660 (-19)
Andy Kieran 1630 (+65)
Brett Zeleznik 1609 (-31)
Lance Beingessner 1575 (-79)
Dugan McInnes 1493 (-21)

Season Stats: Kyle narrows the gap between himself and fourth-place Darrel to 94-88 with K.J. just a point behind now at 87... Lee move up two spots to eighth at 62, one behind Bernie... Bates jumps up five sports to enter the top ten at 54... The Arena stats see K.J. increasing his lead over Kyle to 82-63 while Bates passes the absent Zac for third, 54-53... K.J. moves from sixth to fourth in overall goals ahead with 44; he has the leading Arena total by a mile... Kyle passes Darrel for fourth in assists, 46-45, with K.J. close behind at 42... Lee moves into a tie with Zac for ninth at 34... K.J. takes the Arena assist lead from Zac with 37; Zac has 34 followed by Kyle at 32 and Bates at 30... Kyle becomes the fourth player this season with 200 shots on goal.... Bates hands the shooting percentage lead to K.J., who is scoring over 33 percent of the time this year... Carter becomes the sixth goalie with 200 saves this year... Kyle becomes the first Arena player to enter the top five in games played this season with 45... Carter ties Sam for fifth in games goaltended with 22; he is five behind Brodie for the Arena lead... K.J. becomes the first player this season with 100 three-star points and total star points... K.J. moves from sixth to fourth in GPG

SDF/GDF: This is K.J.’s sixth different time atop the SDF, tying his with brother Seamus... Big drops from Jesse (down four to eighth) and Kris (down four to 12th) allow Zac, Stefan, Oliver, and Bateman to move up three spots each... for the second week in a row Colton jumps up huge and now sits 17th Tony falls to 20th due to inactivity... Kalum is almost into the top 25... Brodie loses the top spot on the GDF but through no fault of his own – a bad session of Dominik’s dropped off the ranking this week, allowing him to pass Brodie for first... This is the 20th time Dominik has topped the GDF, tied with K.J. for sixth all-time... Next week on the rankings should be interesting, as the first Arena sessions will begin dropping off.

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

On the All-Time Front: Kyle passes Seamus in all-time scoring, becoming the first non- Burton original to crack the top five... Terryn passes 350 points... Bates needs four points for 150... Terryn needs 13 assists for 200... K.J. needs 29 shots on goal for 3,000... Kyle passes Laird for 11th in games played... K.J. becomes the seventh player with 500 three star points... Lee falls behind Pat Elischer to sixth in shots-per-game... K.J. pots his 43rd career 15-pointer... Lee plays his 16th consecutive session; Kyle his tenth; Dugan, Nathyn, Kellan, and K.J. their seventh; Ryan Bateman, James, and Brett their sixth.