He was once the ironman of Burton hockey, now he's just a two-time recipient of shame. Yes, Oliver missed another session of hockey to go mushroom picking. His loss. Thursday welcomed the return of Colby Olsen after three years in Sun Peaks, complete with 'Jesus Is Lord' hockey stick in hand. The session also marked the Burton debut of Chris Nowak, complete with Bob Marley jersey. Chris was shaky to begin with; as a result, the games went by quite quick, allowing the crew to play a record eleven games this session. The first session saw Nathan, K.J., Seamus, Bernie, Graeme and Pat win 2-1. Chris would have his revenge, helping Lorne, Lorne, Bernie, Seamus and Colby win the next series 2-0. Colby was an interesting story; the rust was quite evident as he wiped out an absurd seventeen times, easily destroying Oliver's old record. There were quite a few spills this session. Seamus was hit in the face twice with the ball and also wiped out once, nailing his head on the pavement. K.J.'s face looked like a landmine after falling face-first behind the net. K.J., Lorne, Pat, Laird, Bernie and Nathan (posting his third shutout of the season) swept Chris, Colby, Seamus, Justin and Graeme 2-0 in the next series. Nathan, as usual, pulled out his retardedly awesome saves. But it was time for Nowak to emerge. The final series saw Chris transform from a goaltending travesty into a feared guardian of the net (just ask Justin). Whereas before he was struggling to stay above .600, Nowak shook off the cobwebs and showed us what he can really do, drawing opposing players' punk cards on many occasions. If he continues to play like he did that last series, we could have another amazing goalie on our hands. K.J., Seamus, Pat, Laird, and Bernie, backstopped by Chris, came back to tie the best-of-five against Justin, Lorne, Graeme and Colby 2-2, forcing a two-goal overtime. Justin and Lorne worked quickly to win the game and the series for their side. K.J. led in scoring all day but Lorne charged hard at the end as they both posted 29 points to share first-star honours with Seamus right behind at 26. This marks rare back-to-back 20-point sessions for K.J. (only the eighth person to do so). We must also take note of Graeme and Pat who had breakout sessions, each with seven goals and twelve assists; two more names to remember as offensive threats from now on in Burton hockey.

Useless Stats: Thanks to the really quick game times, almost all of the 2004 session records were broken Thursday: points (K.J. and Lorne, 29), goals (K.J., 19), assists (Lorne, 13), shots (Lorne, 71), and saves (Nathan, 161, second all-time!). Lorne increases his season lead to 21 points over Justin. K.J. moves into third in season scoring with 49 pts, two ahead of Seamus, and moves into second in goals just four behind Lorne. K.J. also leads in shooting percentage. Amazingly, Nathan, a pure goaltender, is now tied for second in assists with Justin at 24. Pat moves into the top five in assists and is sixth in points, proving himself as a major offensive threat. Lorne is the first to go over 200 shots this year. Nowak's debut session did garner him one accolade: second-highest save total by a rookie (109). With Bernie taking a game off to repair a busted skate, Nathan, Lorne, Justin and Graeme are now the only players to play all 31 games this year (this will shrink to three next week with the absence of Graeme). On the all-time front, Nathan's session moves him back into the all-time goaltending lead, .820-.818 over Seamus. Nathan also passes Lyle for third all-time in saves and becomes just the third goalie to make 1000 Burton saves. Nathan passes Justin and Mitch to become fourth in games goaltended, he is also now in the top 20 in assists and top 30 in points. Justin has now passed JC and tied Laird for sixth in all-time scoring with 330 pts, just two behind Joern for fifth all-time. Justin is also the fifth player to hit 800 shots, and only three players have more 15-points session (Lorne, Oliver, Lee). Laird passes Joern for fourth all-time in assists with 181. Seamus becomes the 12th player to hit 200 points and passes the injured Robert to become 11th all-time in scoring, eight behind Simon (he also hits 100 assists). Seamus is also only the fifth player to have multiple 25-point sessions along with Lorne (7), Robert (4 in a row), Lee (3) and JC (2) and he is now eighth in three-star points.. K.J. becomes the fifteenth player to hit 100 points and moved past Dustin M. and Dylan into fourteenth all-time, he is now also fifth all-time in goals-per-game. Justin drops out of the top five in assists-per-game, giving that position to Joern. Bernie is just four away from reaching the 400-game milestone. Graeme enters the top 20 in scoring and is tied with Karl for 19th. Remember to check out all of your leaderboards for all-time, season and session records by clicking on the Records and Honours link on the front page. Also, take note that with Bernie and Graeme in Fernie next week, Monday's session depends upon YOU for transportation so get organized!