Week two of the reborn BUSH season, and the momentum continues to build. The lone sunny day in a week of solid rain across Western Canada made for some oppressively hot conditions tonight, but no one cared. Not even late-night celebrating for Ryan Bateman’s 19th birthday could stop the roster from fulfilling their appointed task in Burton. There was intrigue leading into the session as apparently Graeme Orr (who was away in Nelson this weekend) had conjured up the unlikely rookie goaltending tandem of Kyle Jones and Dylan Leeson-Booth, which would have made for one of the most interesting sessions of recent memory. Dylan, however, had family obligations, leaving Kyle as the day’s only rookie.

There were once again some more 2013 debuts today. Augmenting Jonesy and the returnees from last week (Seamus, Lee, Ryan, Kellan, Oliver, and James) to make their season debuts were Kyle Grenier, Terryn Stenseth, and Andrew Likness. On paper, that is a fantastic line-up; a sentiment that was indeed borne out over the day’s action.

Bates would get the call in net against Mr. Jones as the day started off with 4-on-4 action. Ryan would back Kellan, Ollie, Seamus, and Drew against the two Kyles with James, Lee, and Terryn. As a handful of players would experience wheel issues throughout the day, there would be moments in this series where the action went back down to 3-on-3. The story of the first series was the offensive dominance of Seamus. Leading his side to a 20-7 shot count in Game 1, Seamus pointed out the first game to continue his unlikely 5.00 PPG average on the year as Team Ryan won handily 5-2. The highlight of the game, however, was a rather embarrassing own goal by Ryan that gave a tired Grenier his only point of the first two games. The story wasn’t much different in Game 2, with another three points for Seamus and another lopsided 5-1 victory. Switching goalies for Game 3 helped even the sides out a bit, as well as an inadvertent high stick from Andrew on James which opened James up a little bit beside the left eye. Andrew asked for James to be given a penalty shot, and he sunk it en route to a 5-3 victory. In a losing cause, Seamus grabbed yet another three points, and was putting some distance between himself and the rest of the field. That would change in the next series.

Not feeling it in goal, Jones (who, keep in mind, hadn’t played any sort of hockey in the last 15 years, so his coming out today was highly commendable) switch out of net in favour of Terryn, who wasn’t feeling it on skates. This even up the goaltending as Terryn backed the high-flying sub team of Lee, Kellan, Oliver, and Drew against Seamus, Grenier, James, Jones (who called it a day after the first game, leaving us with 3-on-3 for the rest of the day), and Bates. Terryn only had to face seven shots in Game 4, and only let in one as his men took their opponents to task. Lee, Kellan, and Drew had four points each in their 5-1 victory. Game 5 looked to be more of the same with Team Terryn going up 3-0, but a comeback was in store. Grenier was finally beginning to feel better (a stomach discharge in between games helped) and his slapshot came to the fore. Throw in some nice cash-ins by Jamie, and the series was tied with a 5-3 win which left Lee fuming. The Team Terryn ship was righted for Game 6, led by multiple Likness breakaways that got him another four points and had him leading the session with 16 points after his side clinched the series with a 5-2 victory.

Egged on by Grenier, two more games would be played in this session, which went by rather quickly. Lee, Kellan, and Terryn stayed together, taking on Seamus as a teammate against the sub team of Andrew, Grenier, Ollie, James, and Ryan. The Lee-Kellan-Seamus combo was deadly in Game 7, stomping their way to a 5-2 win. Oliver and James would lead the return charge in Game 8, putting together some nice passing plays and grinding out a 5-4 win.

The series was left tied, as there was nothing left in the tank after Game 8. The sun was bright but the air was still very humid after the recent downpours, and it led to a lots of fluids needing to be replaced afterward (the tap not being on at the park’s semi-abandoned concession stand didn’t help, either). A satisfying day of hockey nonetheless with lots of great skaters.

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Once the gang caught up to Seamus in Game 3, the war was on for first star. When Andrew had 16P after Game 6, it looked like it may be him taking home top spot, but amazingly, after eight games, nothing was solved. Lee (13G-8A), Kellan (11G-10A), and Seamus (7G-14A) all ended up tied for first star at 21P in a session where five players had between 35 and 45 shots on goal and between 16 and 21P. In goal, Terryn entered the net in Game 4 and performed admirably, racking up .815 in his five games in net despite wearing a mask that had evidently been used as a bathroom by a cat since the last session. Ryan started out hot but fell during games 6 and 7, finishing at .780 with 99 saves. Kyle’s three games left him 15-for-30. With the short games today, saves-per-games were fairly low.

Game Scores:
Kellan Oliver Seamus Andrew Ryan def. James Grenier Lee Terryn Jones 5-2 5-1
James Grenier Lee Terryn Ryan def. Kellan Oliver Seamus Andrew Jones 5-3
Lee Kellan Oliver Andrew Terryn def. Seamus Grenier Ryan James Jones* 5-1 3-5 5-2 (*Game 4 only)
Lee Kellan Seamus Terryn vs. Andrew Grenier Oliver James Ryan 5-2 4-5

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Lee Orr 13/19 (68.42%)
Kellan Nishida 10/18 (55.56%)
Seamus O’Connor 7/15 (46.67%)
Andrew Likness 6/13 (46.15%)
Kyle Grenier 3/7 (42.86%)
Terryn Stenseth 3/7 (42.86%)
James Hewlitt 5/12 (41.67%)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 3/9 (33.33%)

Elo Ratings
Kyle Grenier 2181 (-32)
Kellan Nishida 2051 (+33)
Andrew Likness 2024 (-6)
Lee Orr 2009 (+42)
Seamus O’Connor 2008 (+42)
Oliver Koth-Kappus 1901 (-8)
Terryn Stenseth 1848 (-33)
James Hewlitt 1782 (-3)

Provisional Ratings (less than three sessions played)
Kyle Jones 1765 (n/a)

Season Stats: With no VRH action this week, the BUSH guys gain a little more ground. Oliver, who played the first part of the VRH season before coming to BUSH, is coming back toward the leaders quickly. He trails Ryan Disterheft for third by just three points now, 83-80... Kellan becomes the first BUSH-exclusive player to enter to top ten this year, sitting ninth at 39. Lee sits just outside the top ten at 36... Oliver ties Bernie Koth-Kappus for fifth in goals at 26 with Lee sits eighth at 21... Much of the BUSH gang is now eligible for the shooting percentage race, which sees Kellan take the lead at an even 30.00% and James and Lee moving to third and fourth, respectively... Bates moves to fifth in saves with 148... Oliver ties Andrew Smart for fifth in games played at 35... Bates ties Stu bell for fourth in games goaltended with 11... Seamus jumps all the way to third in three-star points with 30; Kellan is right behind at 25... Seamus moves to fifth in total star points at 45... As BUSH players reach some of the session minimums for per-game stats, we see Seamus in second at 3.10 PPG, Kellan in fourth at 2.79, and Lee in fifth at 2.77... Lee sits third in GPG at 1.62... Seamus moves to second in APG at 1.80 ahead of Oliver (1.54) and Kellan (1.50)... Seamus is fifth in shots-per-game at 7.10... The 21 points each scored by Lee, Seamus, and Kellan tie for the fourth-highest session total so far this year... Lee’s 13 goals rank third-highest, while Kellan’s 11 tie for fifth... Seamus’ 14 assists tie for the season high thus far.

SDF/GDF: Andy smart holds onto the SDF lead for the 31st time in his career, but that lead is in serious jeopardy for the first time in a few weeks as the BUSH brigade is coming, led by Kellan Nishida. Kellan jumps up 12 spots to second and is only just behind Smart (if Kellan had finished solo first, in fact, he’d already be leading). Lee and Seamus aren’t even at their session minimums yet, and are already at fourth and seventh... Bron holds the GDF’s top spot again, now by even a larger margin than previous over Dom, with the only move of import being Ryan Bateman climbing two spots to sixth as he crosses the session minimum.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Oliver becomes the first player ever to score 2,800 points in Burton Hockey, while Lee is just 13 points behind him now for the all-time lead... Seamus becomes the fourth player to score 1,600 points and is 17 points ahead of Kyle, who needs eight points for 1,600... James passes 150 points and Kellan reaches 100... Lee becomes the first player to score 1,500 goals; Oliver becomes the second to score 1,100... Seamus is 13 goals behind K.J. for sixth... Oliver becomes the first player to score 1,700 assists... Lee needs 18 assists for 1,300... Terryn needs ten assists for 200... Ryan needs six assists for 100... Terryn falls behind K.J. just barely for fourth in save percentage at .828, while Ryan falls out of the top five completely to seventh at .818... Oliver needs 20 games for the magical 1,500... Lee becomes the third player to play 1,000 games... Terryn needs two games for 200... Ryan plays his 100th game... Seamus becomes the sixth player with 600 three-star points... Lee becomes the first player with 1,500 total star points... Seamus passes 1,500 points in BUSH action... Kyle passes Stefan Klopp and Lorne Bilinski for third in 15-pointers with 59... Seamus has four straight 15-pointers... Andrew grabs his fourth 15-pointer; Kellan his second... Seamus has back-to-back 20-pointers in full-length sessions... Kellan records his first-ever 20-pointer... Lee records his 75th career ten-goal session, while Kyle pots his 50th and Kellan his first... Seamus ties Stefan for third in ten-assisters with 28... Kellan has back-to-back ten-assisters... Believe it or not, this was Ryan’s first 80- and 90-save session... Terryn has eight straight .800 sessions dating back to April of 2009 and three straight .810s going back to June 2010... Kellan’s consecutive session streak goes to 12 (10 Arena, 2 BUSH) while a review officially reactivates Oliver’s streak at 11 (7 VRH, then 1 BUSH at NES during a VRH off-week, then 1 back in VRH, then 2 BUSH after switching back to Nakusp for the summer).