Never underestimate the power of guilt, especially when the power is wielded by a man like Seamus O’Connor. On this, the occasion of his 32nd birthday, his lone wish was to provoke Burton United Socialist Hockey out of its long slumber and reignite the flame of roller hockey in the Arrow Lakes. Aiding Seamus in his mission was the fact that two members of his treeplanting crew from Winnipeg were up for the task right away. Throw in the three members of the Faint family (James Hewlitt and his cousins Lee & Graeme Orr), and a session was pretty much guaranteed. Seamus refused to leave it as just a bare-bones session, however. Not with the great Oliver Koth-Kappus back in Brouse for the summer from VRH. Not with brother K.J. O’Connor in from Kamloops for the weekend. Not with Kellan Nishida ready to go at Overwaitea. Not with wunderkind Ryan Bateman back from the northern Alberta hinterland. Not with Colby Olsen down from Revelstoke on Father’s Day. Not with 26°C with nary a cloud in the sky. Whether the beginning of something new for 2013, or merely a one-off reunion, Providence required it to happen. With the crew in tow, it was time to return home. Home to Burton.

The big question on everyone’s minds would be the rust factor. While Oliver had already been playing all year in VRH, everyone else was dealing with months of layoff. That said, a lot of today’s crew were in tip-top treeplanting shape (Seamus has lost 35 pounds in the past six weeks alone, and is looking fierce). There was also the subplot of the all-time scoring race. With the inactivity of BUSH, Oliver Koth-Kappus was able to make up over 300 points on Lee Orr over the past 18 months and retook the lead he had held for so long all those years ago. Entering this session, the race was 2,772-2,752 in favour of Ollie over Leeroy. How much would it change after this evening? As for our two treeplanting rookies from Winnipeg, how would they take to the non-arena atmosphere? And what about that sweltering heat?

In true Burton style, the session started an hour late, with most of the guys behind a little bit. K.J. suffered the biggest delay when his engine light came on at Crescent Bay, forcing him back to Nakusp for an oil change. Ryan and Colby came, but neither had blades. As such, they would come on later when others decided to take breaks. Seamus would do battle against one of his fellow planters, Cory Bellhouse, in goal. Also doing battle against Cory was fellow rookie Mark Harper, looking to become ‘the highest-scoring Winnipegger in Burton history’. Seamus and Harper would team up with K.J., Oliver, and Kellan (making his long-awaited BUSH debut after a stellar 2012 in the Arena League) on the sub team against the Faint family (James, Lee, and Graeme) with Cory in goal.

Game 1 began at 3 pm, right at the peak of the sweltering June heat, and the game was certainly a hard-fought slog; the longest game of the day. That said, it was a great game, and Seamus showed notice that he was here to play with some fantastic saves. The Faint cousins came to play as well, as they hooked up for three tic-tac-toes in this game. The highlight of the game, however, came in the middle of the frame when, after a save on a sub change, Seamus played the puck from the back quarter of the court (about where the back right-hand faceoff circle on a regular rink), throwing a wrist shot right on Cory that went five-hole and in, giving Seamus the honour of being the fourth goaltender in Burton Hockey history to score a goal. Harper also notched his first career goal here. The game carried on for half-an-hour, coming down to a golden goal before Team Faint/Cory won to take the first game.

After a break for some beverages and organic cylinders, it was time for Game 2, and this one went quickly. K.J. broke out here with five points including two unassisted goals, and it took just 15 shots to complete the 5-3 win to tie the series. Game 3 saw the play settle down again as K.J. and Kellan got their side up 3-0. Team Cory were able to tie the game thanks to some family magic from the Faints, but they couldn’t complete to victory and Team Seamus won 5-3.

After the first series, teams were changed up after every game in order to get everyone in attendance involved in the session. Ryan would come in to spell Cory off in goal for the rest of the session, which led to Lee giving up his skates to Cory for a game to take some pictures. Mark would sub off for Game 4 in order to get Colby in for a game. Colby would take mark’s place on the sub team along with Jamie, Kellan, and K.J. with Ryan in net against Cory (now on skates), Oliver, Graeme and Seamus. Game 4 was all about Bates as he showed the form that led him to a .922 at the 2011 SuperSession. Ryan would post 29 saves and .934 in goal as the K.J.-Kellan-James combo were on fire again, winning 5-2.

For Game 5, Cory gave up his skates to Mark while Colby called it a day after skating in skates that were a bit outsized and also soaked in another dude’s sweat, bringing Lee back in. Seamus backed the sub team of James, Graeme, and Oliver while K.J. and Kellan teamed with Harper. Oliver continued to rack up the assists here, but he also scored the winning goal (his first of the session) as his crew won 5-3.

James left before the final game, producing 3-on-3 action with Oliver, Kellan, and Lee with Ryan against K.J.,Graeme, and Cory with Seamus. The K.J.-Seamus-Cory combo were able to bring Ryan back down to Earth in this game, but it still wasn’t enough. Now in his groove, Ollie posted a hat trick to lead his side to another golden goal victory.

It was a triumphant return for Burton United Socialist Hockey tonight. Three gruelling hours of high-end hockey to get us back in the groove again. Anticipation is already building for a session next weekend, and we don’t need Seamus’ guilt trips to get it going, either. Roller hockey is back in the Arrow Lakes.

Both Lee and I took photos (his will be better), and Graeme set up his GoPro, so look for lots of pictures and video from the session arriving in the next few days.

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K.J. led the scoring race from Game 2 on, and was the top scorer tonight with 14G-7A. In his BUSH debut, Kellan carried over the skills he showed in the Arena League, finishing second with a career-high 7G-11A. On the back of his 12A, Oliver grabs third star by a point over Lee and Graeme. For Lee, that’s even more impressive considering he took Game 4 off. In goal, Seamus was steady all night, staying nice and consistent throughout the session and finishing with a solid .830 on 112 saves. Ryan had a hot start in goal and it carried him to .817, while Cory debuted at .674.

Game Scores:
Kellan Seamus K.J. Oliver Mark def. Lee James Graeme Cory 4-5 5-3 5-3
James Kellan K.J. Colby Ryan def. Cory Oliver Graeme Seamus 5-2
James Graeme Oliver Seamus Lee def. K.J. Kellan Mark Ryan 5-3
Oliver Kellan Lee Ryan def. Seamus K.J. Graeme Cory 5-4

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Kellan Nishida 8/12 (75.00%)
Lee Orr 9/14 (64.29%)
Graeme Orr 6/10 (60.00%)
Mark Hewitt 2/4 (50.00%)
K.J. O’Connor 13/27 (48.15%)
Cory Bellhouse 2/5 (40.00%)
James Hewlitt 5/13 (38.46%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 0.5 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
K.J. O’Connor 2233 (+15)
Kellan Nishida 2018 (+29)
Graeme Orr 1974 (+2)
Lee Orr 1967 (+3)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 1909 (+15)
James Hewlitt 1785 (+3)
Colby Olsen 1610 (-21)

Provisional Ratings (less than three sessions played)
Mark Harper 1785 (n/a)
Cory Bellhouse 1769 (n/a)

With both BUSH and VRH in action today, there are plenty of stats to summarise:

Season Stats: With Andrew Smart absent from today’s VRH session, Rob Hajdu takes the scoring lead, 136-133... Bernie Koth-Kappus and Dom Voser pass Tony Hajdu for sixth and seventh, 51-44-42... Darrel Voser jumps from 12th to ninth... K.J. debuts in 13th in points... Andrew leads Rob in goals, 65-63, while Jordan passes Tony for fourth, 30-24... Rob ties Andrew for the lead in assists at 68... Oliver passes Ryan Disterheft for third in assists, 45-43... Dom passes Jordan for fifth in assists, 29-28... Oliver passes Jordan for fourth in shots on goal, 130-129... Bernie rockets into the lead in shooting percentage at 24.76 percent with Jordan sneaking into third ahead of Dom... Seamus debuts fourth in save percentage at .830... Ryan passes Andrew for fourth in games played, 36-35... Stuart Bell passes Bron Mach for fourth in games goaltended, 11-9... Dom is the only goalie with any shutouts this year; he has three... Jordan and Ryan move into third in three-star points at 30... Seamus moves into fifth in goalie star points with 15... Rob passes Sam lam for third in total star points, 65-55... Rob passes Jordan for third in PPG... Rob passes Dom for fourth in GPG and Jordan for third in APG... Seamus debuts fourth in saves-per-game, knocking Dom out of the top five... K.J.’s 21 points rank fourth-highest in sessions so far this year, while his 14 goals rank second... Oliver’s 12 assists tie for third-highest in a session this year... Seamus’ 112 saves rank fifth-highest this year... Lee Orr becomes the fourth player to play in all 14 seasons of Burton Hockey.

SDF/GDF: Andrew Smart spends his fourth straight and 30th total session rankined #1 on the SDF... The absent Stefan Klopp loses a bad session from his total (the session where he played with a knee injury at the beginning of the year) and rockets from seventh to third, switching places with Jordan Barlow... The BUSH gang rejoins the ranking and next week, you should see some of them cross the session minimum and begin competing for the top spots... On the GDF, Bron ties Dom for fifth all-time with his 23rd career session led. With the BUSH session featuring goalies who are entering the ranking today, no real changes are seen at the top of the ranking.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: The all-time scoring race between Oliver and Lee remains separated by 20, 2,787-2,767... Bernie needs four points for 1,700... Rob Hajdu is 43 points behind Justin Gordon for ninth... Jordan Barlow passes Pat Elischer for 13th... Ryan passes Tony for 15th and passes 800 points... Lee needs seven goals for 1,500... Oliver needs four goals for 1,100... K.J. passes 750 goals... Graeme needs 11 goals for 500; Rob needs 14... Oliver needs eight assists for 1,700... Graeme passes Barlow for 12th in assists... K.J. becomes the eighth player with 3,000 shots on goal... Seamus passes Bates for second in all-time goaltending, .832-.830... Seamus is 75 saves behind Chris Jackins for sixth all-time... Lee needs to play three games to become the third player with 1,000 games played... Dom Voser is one game behind Lorne Bilinski for sixth in games played... Graeme passes Sam and becomes the 14th player with 500 games played... Seamus is three games goaltended behind Justin for eighth... Dom records his 27th and 28th career shutouts, easily the all-time lead... Dom passes Shem Hanna for fifth in goaltender points, 88-85... Oliver passes Kyle Grenier for second in three-star points with 855... Seamus is 15 goalie star points behind Bron Mach for fourth, 435-420... Lee needs ten total star points to become the first with 1,500... Seamus passes 1,100 total star points, Dom reaches 800, and Ryan Bateman reaches 100... Seamus needs two points for 1,500 in BUSH... Freed from the constraints of the Arena League’s short sessions, Kellan records his first career 15-pointer and ten-assister... Graeme has three straight 15-pointers... Seamus passes Nathan Robson for second in .800s with 32, 20 behind Dominik Voser for the lead... Dom becomes the first goalie with 40 .820s... Seamus ties Justin for third in .830s with 18... Seamus ties Nathan Robson for fifth in 80-savers with 25... Seamus ties Sam Lam, Justin, and Laird Bilinski for fifth in 90-savers with 18... Seamus ties Nathan for fourth in 110-savers with 12... VRH’s Rob Hajdu extends his consecutive session streak to 18 while Kellan’s consecutive session streak (10 Arena, 1 BUSH) goes to 11 and Dom’s goes to nine. We can officially put the Dugan McInnes consecutive session streak to bed at ten.