With no Robert around on Thursday the hockey gang saw an opportunity to do some stat padding. Most importantly, however, was the long-awaited season debut of Lyle in net. The yearlong layoff had no effect on him whatsoever and he led the day with a stellar .833 in six games under sweltering heat and sun. The new Burton pavement was so hot that players would actually make indents in it when they stopped skating and stood. Even the addition of Laird in the second game could not help Graeme, Justin, Nathan, Oliver and Chris (who was pretty choked that his new pads started ripping in the first ten minutes) beat Lyle, Seamus, Pat, Bernie and Lorne, who won 2-1. Oliver was great the first series but fell off in the heat, leaving the session a four-way battle between Seamus, Justin, Lorne and Pat. Nathan, Seamus, Justin, Bernie, Pat and Lyle beat Graeme, Laird, Chris, Oliver and Lorne 3-0 in the final series. Although there was still and hour of daylight left, the guys were exhausted from the heat; next Monday's session on the summer solstice will start an hour later as a result. Justin barely held off Seamus 11-6-17 to 8-8-16 to win first star with Pat edging out Lorne 6-8-14 to 10-3-13 to take third.

Useless Stats: Lorne pulls away from the absent Robert and hold a 39-point lead in the scoring race. The battle for second is fierce with Justin just three points behind Rob and Seamus seven points behind Justin. Oliver passes K.J. for fifth in points. Justin moves ahead of Robert into second in goals and Oliver for fourth in assists. Lorne goes over 100 goals and Seamus over 100 points. Lorne also hits 400 shots for the year while Justin hits 300 and Graeme is three behind K.J. for fifth. Lyle starts off his year with an excellent .833 and is second in save percentage for the year behind K.J and fourth in saves-per-game. Graeme moves ahead of Laird into fourth in games this year. Seamus passes brother K.J. for fourth in three-star points. On the all-time front, Justin passes the injured Lee for fourth on the all-time scoring list. He also passes Joe and ties Lee for third in all-time goals. Seamus is one point behind Robert for tenth all-time. Lorne needs two goals for 500 and Bernie still needs one for 200. Oliver becomes the first person to reach 400 assists. Laird needs five assists for 200. Lorne reaches an amazing 2000 shots. Justin is only five shots behind Stefan for fourth and 35 behind Lee for third. He needs 40 to hit 1000 shots. He is also only four points behind Oliver and Lee for second in three-star points and needs ten for 200. Laird falls behind Robert for first in all-time assists-per-game. Lyle becomes the fourth goalie to register 100 saves and passes Nathan for third in games goaltended. Chris passes Justin for fifth in career saves and Mitch for fifth in games goaltended. Oliver needs two more games for 400; Lorne needs four more for 300. Pat jumps from 27th to 22nd on the all-time scoring list. It was Justin's 12th career 10-goal session, moving him into second all-time in that field. It was also his fifth-straight, the second-longest streak of all-time. Justin also has a 15-point streak of five sessions. Lorne's record streak of 15-goal sessions is snapped at four, and his 15-point session streak ends at five. Bernie's consecutive session streak is now up to 25.

Burton Cup: Seamus' second-star performance was enough to take Republic of Ireland back into second ahead of North Kootenay Falcons. Government Hill is closing fast in fourth but Lords still have a sizeable lead. Don't forget to check out the Burton Cup stats and the Records And Honours page linked on the front of the site. Hopefully more hockey for you on Monday.