Whenever newly-minted Burton Hall of Famer Chris Jackins returns to his homeland from Australia, hockey is a guarantee. It seems no other person has an ability to provoke Burton Hockey out of its lethargy like BUSH’s most experienced goaltender. Still, it came as quite the shock to your humble statistician when Seamus O’Connor phoned at 2:15 to say that hockey was on at three. Even more shocking was the announcement that BUSH’s first female skater, Kim McPhee Cain would be returning to the fold after nine years, and that she would be playing in her roller derby gear to boot, including flat-track skates and her #36 helmet (that’s for her alter ego Berly McPain of the Valley Vendettas, in case you were wondering).

Despite the absolute downpour going on elsewhere throughout the West Kootenay, the rain conveniently ceased south of the Arrow Park bend for the session, and even though the clouds were imposing, nothing came down of any consequence. It would be the first time that Chris’ kids, Dex and Kodi, would be able to see hockey up close and personal. Their dad would team with Kim, Graeme, and Seamus against Justin’s team of Lee and James. With no time to spare (the Jackins had to be at dinner at 5:30), play was started with Andrew still en route.

Just ten minutes and one goal into the first game, right as our old friend Isaac and his wife came to visit, the only ball the gang had broke, forcing a halt in play until a solution could be found. While some of the gang scoured the entire park in the hopes an old lost ball might be lying around somewhere, Dex was sent across the street to his grandparents’ house to try and find a ball. He didn’t get a ball, but he did get some duct tape we could use to patch the existing one, and the game resumed with a now-black ball, which worked just fine even if it was a bit heavier. It was here that Kim made history by becoming the first woman to score a goal in BUSH history, putting the finishing touches on a tic-tac-toe play to put Team Chris up 2-0. Soon after, Lee blew an axle, and the game halted again for another ten minutes. After some repairs and the arrival of Andrew to even up the teams, the game quickly found its rhythm, and the goalies began to steal the show. Ultimately, the Seamus-Graeme combo proved to be the difference here, as the tandem figured on all five team goals to give Chris a win in his first game back despite being outshot 33-20.

In between games, Andrew quickly drove home and grabbed a new ball, and this would be used for Game 2, which would be the final game of the day thanks to its mammoth 75-minute length; the best 75 minutes of goaltending seen at McCormack Park since the 2011 Fuller Cup. The game was a back-and-forth slog. Initially Team Chris had the upper hand 2-0, but Lee and Jamie prove a fearsome combination as well, coming back to grab the lead. After Seamus tied things up, the game settled into 20-minutes of hard-fought, stonewall hockey. Kim showed off her roller derby background by flattening James. Graeme’s shorts got caught on the wire netting of Chris’ goal as Lee was about to score and the younger Orr wound up pulling the net a good five feet (ripping his shorts in the process), leading to a Leeroy penalty shot that, naturally in this game, was saved by Chris. The long period with no scoring was finally broken by Seamus, only for James to cash in a Lee rebound soon after the next faceoff. By now, it was time for dinner, so naturally the game went another 15 minutes without a goal before the James-Lee-Andrew combo struck one last time on a tic-tac-toe to win the game and ensure the day finished evenly. When Game 2 was finally over, Chris had made 65 saves on 70 shots, while Justin had stopped 59 of 63 shots.

It’s crazy how good Chris always seems to be whenever he comes back after a year or two away in Australia, but this blew all of his previous efforts away. Here, both he and Justin put up the best goaltending marks of 2013. It’s just the second time in the 14-season history of Burton Hockey two goalies put up .900s against one another in the same session. It should also be mentioned that Seamus is playing the best hockey of his life this year (four session skated, four sessions led in scoring), and it’s too bad we haven’t got to see more of it in this stop-start season. The teams were perfectly balanced today, and when you throw in goaltending like that, it made for a fantastic two hours in Burton.

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A true goaltending clinic this evening in Burton, with Justin and Chris becoming just the second pair of goaltenders to post .900 save percentages in the same session in Burton Hockey history, joining Alex Elischer and Ryan Bateman who accomplished the feat at the 2011 Fuller Cup. Justin just edged Chris, .906-.900. Both goalies averaged over 40 saves per game tonight, with Justin making 87 saves to Chris’ 81. Scoring-wise, it was an even-keeled day with the top four all over the scoreboard. Seamus was the best skater today and the only player to register on all of his/her team’s goals, taking the day on 4G-5A. Linemate Graeme (4G-4A) tied Lee (5G-3A) to edge James (4G-3A) by a point to tie for second star.

Game Scores:
Seamus Graeme Kim Chris vs. Lee James Andrew Justin 5-4 4-5

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
James Hewlitt 4/4 (100.00%)
Kimberly McPhee Cain 4/8 (50.00%)
Seamus O’Connor 3/6 (50.00%)
Lee Orr 5/12 (41.67%)
Graeme Orr 2/5 (40.00%)
Andrew Watson 0/1 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
Seamus O’Connor 2044 (+20)
Lee Orr 2008 (-1)
Graeme Orr 1952 (+5)
James Hewlitt 1782 (0)
Andrew Watson 1548 (-2)

Provisional Elo Ratings (fewer than 3 session skated)
Kimberly McPhee Cain 1734 (-20)

Season Stats: Despite all of the action, there were still only two games played, so we don’t see much action inside the top ten, although Seamus does close to within one point of Tony Hajdu and two points of fifth-place Jordan Barlow, 75-74-73... Seamus passes Jordan and Oliver to move into fifth in goals with 37 with Lee enters the top ten at 26... Seamus jumps to sixth in assists at 36... Seamus jumps to fourth in shots on goal at 205... Lee falls from the top five in shooting percentage... Justin jumps from fifth to second in save percentage, trailing Bron for the lead by .854 to .851... Justin also moves to fifth in saves with 229... Seamus trails Rob for second in three-star points, 65-60... Seamus trails Dom for second in total star points, 80-75... Lee passes Kellan for third in PPG... Graeme moves to fourth in APG... Seamus pulls his shots-per-game average back above 10.00... Graeme jumps from fifth to second in shots-per-game, and Lee moves to fifth... As mentioned above, Justin and Chris posted the two best goaltending marks of the year with .906 and .900; Justin also set the fourth-highest PPS of the year at 993.

SDF/GDF: Not too much changes on the SDF, although even in this two -game session, Seamus closes in tightly to Andrew in first place, who leads by the smallest of margins... Justin’s brilliant performance puts him back atop the GDF for the first time since February 2010 and the 30th time ever, as he moves up from eighth to depose Bron... Sam falls under the session minimum and drops from second to eighth.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Lee needs four points for 2,800 and is 29 points behind Oliver for the all-time scoring lead... Graeme needs 11 points to become the 12th player with 1,000... Graeme becomes the 11th player to score 500 goals... Graeme passes Jordan Barlow for 12th in assists and needs 13 for 500... Seamus needs 54 shots on goal for 4,000... Justin tied Laird Bilinski for second in points scored from goal with 107... Chris is six behind Alex Elischer for fifth in games goaltended... Kim went 9 years, 2 months, and 5 days between sessions, the third-longest gap of all time... Chris becomes the ninth goalie with 15 .800 sessions... Justin ties Alex Elischer for fourth in .810s at 25, and Laird Bilinski for fifth in .820s at 19... Justin has back-to-back .840s... Justin passes Seamus for third in .830s with 19... Can you believe that’s only Chris’ sixth career .830 and second session higher than .850?... Justin ties Alex for second in .840s with 16... Justin is just one behind Seamus and Dominik Voser for the lead in all-time .860s at nine... Justin ties Bron, Seamus, and Dom for the all-time lead in .870s at seven... Justin and Chris become only the third and fourth goalies in history to post multiple .900s in their careers... Chris passes Sam for seventh in 80-savers with 23, including three in a row; Justin is two behind at 21, including five in a row... Seamus plays his fifth consecutive session.