Getting back to the task at hand, the BUSH gang reassembled at McCormack Park on a bright, sunny day in Burton for three series of hockey. The goalies switched it up today. With Seamus skating and Alex away, K.J. would make his return to goal against Scott in his rookie netminding appearance. Making his long-awaited Burton Hockey debut would be Mitchel Hascarl, with Andrew Likness and Mitchell Detta making their returns to the Burton fold as well. Due to a deteriorating skate situation, Drew placed himself on-call to go in goal once it was Scott’s time to leave for softball. Throw in Terryn and Kellan on brand-new skates, and knowing that TOMI was on his way to relieve Andrew once he went in net, we were off and ready!

With Mitch Hascarl en route, the first series began 2-on-2 with K.J. backing Drew and Mitch Detta against Scott’s team of Terryn, Seanus, and Kellan. The faceoff rule was waived for this first portion of the game until Mitch Hascarl arrived. Mitch Detta got to work early, scoring on his first shot in his first session in two years. In fact, he’d be the only person that would score for Team K.J. even once Mitch Hascarl showed up to make the session 3-on-3. Detta would score all five goals in a 5-2 victory, with K.J. not only stellar in goal but also garnering two assists.

K.J. maintained his great play in Game 2, which would be very necessary as the game dragged out into a 40-minute slugfest. One notable delay saw Kellan fire the ball over the fence. He retrieved it, and threw it back inside only for Mitch Hascarl to casually blast it right back over the fence (keep in mind that play had not resumed!). Games 2 and 3 saw the use of the brand new, lighter tie-dye ball, which carried a lot of speed but also produced some interesting spin play. Scott improved here and played a big role in extending Game 2 to the 5-4 limit, but the Hascarl-Likness combo sunk the series-winning goal. At this point, Mitch Detta has three more points than everyone else, and K.J. was leading the session in assists.

Scott moved to the other side of the park to join the softball gang right as TOMI arrived to pick up where he left off two weeks ago, scoring on his first shot on K.J. In fact, K.J. would let in every shot he faced in Game 3 – all two of them. Seamus and Terryn began to wake up in this series, and teamed with Mitch Hascarl to end the series quickly at 5-2, 5-1. K.J. made Burton Hockey history in Game 3 by posting a no-save, 2 GA win. Game 4 was actually much more competitive despite the 5-1 score.

The final series was everything Burton Hockey should be. Now much more comfortable in net, Drew began making some pretty stellar saves. This gave his team of Seamus, Kellan, and Mitch Hascarl the freedom to attack K.J., while K.J.’s team of TOMI, Mitch Detta, and Terryn were also clicking well together. Both games went the 5-4 distance, but Seamus would point out the series and lead his team to victory backed by Andrew. TOMI was in on all of his team’s goals as well, with Mitch Hascarl and Kellan also grabbing eight points each in a speedy, high-intensity series.

With BUSH living in some interesting times at the moment, expect the boys to be out there again same time next weekend making good use of the rink.

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The Seamus-Mitch Hascarl-Kellan connection heated up in the final series, and it showed in the final boxscore as they swept the three-star podium. Seamus led the way with 10G-14A on 52 shots thanks to pointing out the final series. Mitch’s debut session was very impressive as he used his speed to notch 10G-7A, with Kellan right behind in third at 7G-9A, edging out Terryn by a point. Also notable again was TOMI, who had 12 points in just four games. In goal, K.J. started out strong with .897 in the first series en route to an overall .838 with 98 saves. Scott may have been discouraged but .778 in a rookie session is nothing to sneeze at. After a rocky start in goal in the second series, Drew was .800 for the rest of the session and finished at .705.

Game Scores:
Drew Detta Hascarl K.J. def. Terryn Seamus Kellan Scott 5-2 5-4
Seamus Terryn Hascarl K.J. def. Kellan TOMI Detta Drew 5-2 5-1
Seamus Kellan Hascarl Drew def. Terryn Detta TOMI K.J. 5-4 5-4

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Andrew Likness 4/5 (80.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 17/26 (65.28%)
Seamus O’Connor 3/5 (60.00%)
Mitch Hascarl 5/14 (37.41%)
Kellan Nishida 2/6 (33.33%)
TOMI 3/11 (27.27%)
Mitchell Detta 0/1 (0.00%)

Elo Ratings
Seamus O’Connor 2111(+23)
Kellan Nishida 2003 (+3)
Andrew Likness 1964 (-60)
Terryn Stenseth 1861 (+8)
Mitchell Detta 1848 (-16)

Provisional Elo Ratings (fewer than three sessions played)
Mitch Hascarl 1845 (n/a)
TOMI 1772 (-5)

Season Stats: Slowly, the BUSH players now begin to catch up to the VRH players in the scoring race. Seamus becomes the first BUSH player in the top five in scoring at 29, with Terryn in sixth at 26 and Kellan seventh at 24... Kellan enters the top five in goals at 13... Seamus ties Rob Hajdu for fourth in assists at 19 with Kellan right behind at 16... The BUSH shot counts haven’t quite caught up, however... Mitch Hascarl and Mitch Detta sit fourth and fifth in shooting percentage, respectively, knocking Kellan out of the top five... With Seamus at .848 and K.J. at .838, the O’Connor brothers top the goaltending charts... K.J. slots in fourth in saves with 98... K.J., Terryn, Kellan, and Seamus have played all 13 BUSH games this season... Seamus ties Ryan Bateman and Jesse Gimbel for fifth in three-star points at 15... K.J. ties Seamus for third in goalie star points with 15... Seamus ties Andrew Smart and Darrel Voser for third in total star points with 30... Seamus takes the PPG lead from Andrew Smart with 4.00; Mitch Hascarl is fourth at 2.83... Mitch and Seamus are tied for second in GPG at 1.67... Seamus slots in second in APG at 2.33, while TOMI is now third at 1.57... Seamus also debuts second in shots-per-game at 8.67... K.J. debuts fourth in saves-per-game at 16.33... Seamus ties Smart for the top scoring session of the season with 24 points in six games... Seamus and Mitch Hascarl’s ten goals each tie for fourth-best in a session this year... Seamus’ 14 assists rank third-best on the year, while Terryn’s ten tie for fourth... Seamus’ 52 shots on goal tie for second-most this year... K.J.’s 98 saves ties for fourth-most this year, while his 936 PPS ranks fourth.

SDF/GDF: After dropping to second last session due to falling below the session minimum on skates, Seamus rebounded with another session led in scoring and in doing so reclaims the top of the SDF from Andrew Smart... Stefan Klopp has a bad session fall off and rises up three spots to third as a result... Terryn and Kellan both start climbing up the charts now, and should be close to the top ten next week (if there is one)... With all-new goalies today for the 2014, it’s probably no surprise that the top five positions on the GDF don’t change as Dom Voser is on top for a second consecutive session and 26th overall, tying Nathan Robson for fifth on the all-time list.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Seamus needs nine points to become the fifth player with 1,700... Mitch Detta is ten points behind Sam Lam for 18th in points... Terryn is 11 points behind Troy Waldron for 25th... Mitch needs seven goals for 400... Seamus becomes the fifth player with 900 assists and is 24 behind Stefan Klopp for fourth... Mitch becomes the 21st player with 250 assists... Mitch becomes the 15th player with 2,000 shots on goal... Seamus needs five games for 800... K.J. passes Stuart Hall for 15th in games goaltended... Seamus nocks Lorne out of the top five in three star points... Seamus ties Lorne Bilinski for sixth in 20-pointers with 28... Terryn records his tenth 15-pointer; Kellan his third... Mitch Hascarl scores a ten-goal session and a 15-pointer in his first session... Seamus becomes the fourth player with 30 ten-assisters... K.J. has back-to-back .830s and back-to-back 90-savers; it’s the tenth time he’s hit .830 in his career... Seamus plays in his eighth consecutive session.