In a word: muggy. The sun was out, the wind was out, and no one brought the sunscreen. BUSH kicked off June with plans for a long session with plenty of action. It was indeed long (nearly four hours even) and was certainly full of action (more awesome 3-on-3 with two all-star goalies putting on all-star performances), and yet only five games would be completed thanks to the session’s high workrate and high humidity keeping games long and competitive.

All of the core members for BUSH in 2014 were in attendance today. So eager were people to play that Kellan, Terryn, and Drew were there two hours before game time. One of Burton’s all-time best in net, Terryn would return to goal for the first time in almost a year against another fellow great in K.J. For the first series, Terryn got Ryan, Mitch, and Kellan while K.J. teamed with Nate, Andrew, and Seamus. It seemed like it took forever for the first goal to go in during Game 1 (seven minutes or so, which is a lot for Burton Hockey), which let us know right away the goalies were good to go. Kellan and Ryan grabbed goals to put their squad up 2-0, but that would be all they got in this one as Andrew powered Team O’Connor to five unanswered goals over the course of the next half-hour. Drew pointed out, while Seamus had four points and Nathyn had three. Although the shots were somewhat even (30-22 for the victors), the types of shots each team got were different: Team Terryn got their chances in bunches off of rebounds followed by long periods of no shots, while Team O’Connor had more overall zone entries.

Game 2 would be more of the same: another 40-minute game that was filled with back-and-forth action. While the score would also be 5-2 here, it was Team Terryn taking the duke with Bates looming large at the point and sending Kellan and Mitch off on numerous scoring chances (Mitch, however, was denied on a penalty shot against K.J.). Shots were again relatively even (30-26 for Team Terryn), and both goalies were flirting with .900.

The two netminders would both be above .900 overall for much of first 20 minutes of Game 3 (at one point, Terryn was 72 for 80 and K.J. was 63 for 70, putting both at exactly .900), which gradually evolved into an 80-minute slog featuring three blown wheels (Drew and Kellan), a break for a complete wheel replacement (also Kellan), six balls out of play, 99 shots on net between the two teams, and Seamus’ errant stick putting a haematoma the size of a zero-bounce ball (not a joke) on the right shin of (you guessed it) Kellan. He’d take a medical time-out for about 15 minutes to cool down the swelling with cold water bottles before reappearing wearing K.J.’s shin guards and rejoining the session (he would proceed to have about three more hard wipeouts, but he wasn’t stopping for anything today). Scoring finally took place following the time-out, and it was a back-and-forth affair that was finally won by Team O’Connor 5-4 despite being slightly outshot 52-47.

Perhaps surprisingly given the even play, teams were switched up for Game 4; the day’s only anomaly. The only game to clock in under the 40-minute mark was ended quickly by K.J’s team of Andrew, Ryan, and Kellan, who outshot their opponents 16-4 and ended the thing in about ten minutes. More big points for Drew and Bates.

It was already past 3pm when Game 5 finally came around. Drew and Kellan would trade teams here, and initially it seemed that Terryn might post a shutout as Andrew, Seam, and Mitch were on fire, going up 4-0 rather quickly. After a short break, however, Team K.J. roared back with three goals to make a game of it and send yet another game past the 40-minute mark. A highlight saw Nathyn, sent flying on his back in front of Terryn, catch a rebound with his hand and casually throw the ball behind Terryn into the net while still on the ground. A good laugh was had by all. A more controversial potential tying goal was scored a few minutes later by Ryan; a short debate did not resolve whether or not the ball had hit the back of the net and come out, and so he was awarded a penalty shot. Terryn made the save, and shortly thereafter Mitch put home the winning goal. Everyone was drained at this point, and a rewarding, but gruelling, day at John McCormack was done.

The VRH gang got together and played today as well, so look for that boxscore to be posted as soon as the stat sheets are rescued from Bernie’s hockey bag which is currently locked in Dom Voser’s car. As well, VRH looks to hold a rare midweek session to welcome home Sam Lam for a few days. Three sessions in four days is always a great week!

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The performance of the goaltenders in the oppressive, muggy conditions was outstanding. Two of Burton’s all-time in net best went toe-to-toe all day long, and in the end both K.J. and Terryn made 136 saves each. The difference? Terryn had one more goal against, giving K.J. the day, .883-.877. Still, it’s Terryn’s best-ever mark in net. With PPS scores of 1019 and 1013 for K.J. and Terryn, respectively, it was the top goaltending session of 2014 thus far. It was the first career 130-save performance for Terryn and, somehow, only the second for K.J. After five years and nine sessions, Terryn has yet to be below .800 in any of them. Scoring-wise, it was a momentous day for Drew, who claimed first star for the first time in his career on the back of 11G and 8A in the five games. Bates was close behind at 7G-10A (not to mention 67 shots on goal in five games), and there was a three-way tie for third between Mitch (8G-6A), Kellan (5G-9A), and Seamus (3G-11A, continuing his assist tear).

Game Scores:
Nathyn Drew Seamus K.J. def. Ryan Mitch Kellan Terryn 5-2 2-5 5-4
Drew Ryan Kellan K.J. def. Seamus Mitch Nathyn Terryn 5-1
Drew Seamus Mitch Terryn def. Kellan Ryan Nathyn K.J. 5-3

Length of session: 3h 59min

Faceoff Stats (unofficial):
Seamus O’Connor 3/5 (60.00%)
Nathyn McInnes 8/15 (53.33%)
Mitch Hascarl 11/21 (52.39%)
Ryan Bateman 6/12 (50.00%)
Terryn Stenseth 9/19 (47.37%)
Andrew Likness 3/7 (42.86%)
Kellan Nishida 1/4 (25.00%)

Elo Ratings
Seamus O’Connor 2119 (-26)
Ryan Bateman 2084 (+12)
Kellan Nishida 1987 (-9)
Andrew Likness 1964 (+45)
Nathyn McInnes 1898 (-31)
Mitch Hascarl 1831 (+10)

Season Stats: VRH was playing at the same time as BUSH today, so we have to wait a bit to find out how the season stats shake out after today. Once they’re in, we’ll update the Records page and sum up this section in the VRH boxscore. What we do know is that Darrel Voser will still be the 2014 scoring leader, and that Terryn will take over the season goaltending lead and be followed by K.J. and Seamus.

SDF/GDF: As aforementioned, we’re waiting for the VRH stats to come in order to generate this weekend’s final ranking, but we know that Bates will pass Seamus to grab the top spot for the second time in his career. K.J. being atop the GDF is also pretty much a given.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Ryan becomes the 34th player to score 200 points in Burton Hockey... Andrew and Ryan both record their fifth 15-pointers... Seamus has three straight ten-assisters, but his 15-pointer streak ends at eight and his 20-pointer streak ends at two... Andrew pots his second ten-goal session... K.J. records his 15th career .800 session, tying him for tenth all-time with Chris Jackins... Terryn has nine consecutive .800 sessions (the sixth-longest streak ever); in fact, he’s never been below .800. K.J. has four straight... Terryn and K.J. each have four straight .810s... K.J. passes Sam for ninth in .820s with 13; he has four in a row... It’s Terryn’s fifth career .830 and K.J’s fourth in a row... K.J. has back-to-back .840s... Terryn records his first .860 and .870 today... K.J. ties Shem Hanna for sixth in .860s with seven, and passes him for fifth in .870s with six... K.J. ties Justin Gordon for second in .880s with five, two behind Seamus for the all-time lead... K.J. records his tenth 80-saver and his four in a row; Terryn pots his fifth... It’s K.J’s fifth career 100-saver... Seamus’ consecutive session streak goes to ten; that’s the fifth ten-session streak of his career.