For almost seven long months VRH had suffered one misfortune after another. The organizational effort was there but whether due to lack of goalies, players or bad weather, not a single session happened in that entire time. In fact, two sessions had already been green-lighted this year but were cancelled due to unexpected precipitation. It was evident the hockey gods were not in our favour. And thus, the supreme holy council of VRH determined a blood sacrifice was the only way to win back their favor. Fritz Friensgeist was chosen for this humble honor; so late on the eve of the largest moon in land, amidst ritualistic dancing to electronic music within a large crowd of burner-ravers, Fritz was slain and offered to the gods.

Indeed the hockey gods appreciated this sacrifice, for on the next morn the ground was dry, VRH had not two but three goalies, and the players were plentiful. There was of course an attempt made to resurrect Fritz for the game, but alas it was no use, the gods demanded he stay slain under the covers.

Teams were created that would see the long absent Thomas Slivinski play with Klopp and Andy with Stu, who was finally starting to get over his concussion, in net, and Sam, Bernie, Darrel & Rhino play with Dom as their goaltender. Despite some strong play that led to a plethora of chances by Team Stu, Dom was able to hold down the fort with some spectacular goaltending. Sam was impressive this game with a hat trick and 5 points, resulting in a 5-2 victory.

But what would a VRH session be without some redemption? And indeed redemption there would be, with team Stu storming back to win the next one 5-2 led by Andy's 5-point effort.

The rubber match would be an extremely close, long drawn out affair. The game went back and forth until Team Stu took the lead (to make it 4-3) and seemed to have the momentum. However, after a few more monumental saves by Dom (with subsequent chants of “Domburgler!”) Team Dom would tie it, and then soon after Darrel would finish the game off in sudden death OT.

Just as the game was coming to an end the heavens opened up and drops begin to fall, a signal from the hockey gods no doubt, that our time was nigh. But no bother, as all had has their fill on a solid 2.5 hours of the “wonderful game”.

Despite the possibility of two Master Bladers' games next weekend look for VRH to try for another session, which might be Lammer's last one in some time. Perhaps another blood sacrifice will be necessary to appease the fickle hockey gods, only time will tell.

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Thanks, Bern! It's good to be back here with you for the improbable SIXTEENTH season of Burton Hockey. It was a close session and the stats reflect that, as reigning scoring champion Darrel continued his scoring ways with 5G-5A in the three games. The returning Sam led the day in goals in with 6G and added 4A to tie assist leader Andy (3G-7A) in a rare three-way first-star performance. The goaltenders were excellent as usual. Dom's stellar session resulted in .875 on 77 saves (a fantastic mark for just three games), while Stu was solid as always with .824.

Game Scores:
Darrel Sam Bernie Ryan Dominik def. Andrew Tom Stefan Stu 5-2 2-5 5-4

Elo Ratings

Andrew Smart 2255 (-3)
Sam Lam 2078 (+17)
Darrel Voser 2032 (+33)
Stefan Klopp 1989 (-6)
Ryan Disterheft 1904 (-20)
Thomas Slivinski 1768 (-3)
Bernie Koth-Kappus 1533 (-8)

Season Stats:It's the first session of 2015, so naturally the session stats are the season stats!

SDF/GDF: Ryan Bateman's narrow SDF lead over Andy Smart widens a bit with Andy's second-place finish today, but it's still tight on top, and Smart looks posied to head back to first place soon as last year's BUSH sessions begin falling off soon... Despite not even being at the session minimum, Sam jumps from 18th to sixth... Bron enters 2015 at #1 on the GDF, barely ahead of Seamus, while Dom passes Stu to move into fourth.

All-Time Session Milestones & Streaks

On the All-Time Front: Rob needs four points to become the ninth player with 1,200... Darrel is four points behind Ben de Wit for 24th... Rob passes Justin for ninth in goals... Andrew needs eight goals for 500; he's 18 behind Graeme for 12th... Andrew is ten assists behind Kyle Grenier for sixth with Rob just ten behind him, 664-654-644... Ryan is eight assists behind Joern Hornhardt for 14th... Darrel is just five assists behind brother Dom 27th... Dom is just 29 saves away from achieving the amazing feat of having made 10,000 saves in Burton Hockey, nearly twice as many as anyone else... Bernie is just ten games away from tying his brother Oliver for the all-time games-played lead at 1,532... Stefan need seven games for 900... Rob needs one game for 550... Darrel is 12 games away from 200... Dom becomes the first goaltender to notch 900 goalie star points; he's ten total star points behind Oliver for third, 925-915... Stefan leads Oliver in all-time VRH scoring, 1,511-1,488; Andrew is 13 points behind Bernie for fourth... Ryno becomes the sixth person to score 900 VRH points... The race for fifth in VRH goals heats up with Bernie at 485, Ryan at 484, and Andy at 480... Stefan needs two VRH assists to become the second player with 700... Stefan and Bernie have played in all 16 Burton Hockey seasons... Dom records his amazing 70th career 80-save session (no one else has more than 37); he also becomes the first goalie with ten .870s... Stu notches his tenth career .820; he has four straight .810s... Dom carries his consecutive session streak into 2015 as his 22-month-long streak goes to 26. Bernie's streak goes to 18, Darrel's to 9, Ryan's to 8, and Stu's to 6.