http://www.burtonhockey.com Get the latest news and stats from Burton Hockey. Kyle Kusch Stefan Klopp Sun, 05 September 2010 00:00:00 PST Bernie Koth-Kappus This session began with a bit of scare, with everyone having arrived and no Alex in sight, we began to get a little worried. Then Stefan received a phone call from Al saying he had only just seen the confirmation e-mail and was currently busy with something else. Nevertheless, to our great relief the younger Elischer would eventually show up and the game was on! If this session was characterized by anything it would have to be spills crashes and injuries, though luckily none of them (very) serious. First Rob sprained a couple of fingers, then J-Bo fell awkwardly hurting his wrist, then Stefan had a massive high speed spill tearing up the side of his hand, J-Bo got an inadvertent stick to the knee drawing blood, and finally in the last game Bernie fell on an innocent looking play scraping up the whole side of his lower leg. Two best-of-3 series were played until the 6th game which would see one of the most evenly matched teams of the day, and an extremely long drawn out battle. After this game J-Bo, Joern and Sam all had to leave. So one final 2-on-2 game (one team had a sub) was played. Normally 2-on-2 games are quick high scoring affairs, yet this was anything but. After Rob & Ollie took a 4-1 lead, the game was absolutely taken over by the goalies; both teams had high quality chance after high quality chance but were absolutely stymied by the two tenders. The game would stay at this score for a good half hour until Rob finally put it away. When all was said and done Al had faced 29 shots (though only letting one goal in) and Dom had faced a massive 48 shots. For complete teams and game scores, check the game analysis section. http://www.burtonhockey.com/boxscores.php?action=view_session&id=309&view=all Sun, 05 September 2010 00:00:00 PST Kyle Kusch It's only the end of August, and Kyle Grenier has already broken the records for most points in one season with 735; a record set last year that many thought would stand for a long time. http://www.burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=142 Mon, 30 August 2010 00:00:00 PST Lee Orr & Kyle Grenier (write-up); Kyle Grenier (statistics) Lee Orr: Riskiest session ever? We drove down through the pouring rain with only 4 guys, gambling that we could get Lyle, Shem would still be in Burton, and it wasn't pouring rain at McCormack like everywhere else. At the viewpoint it was raining so hard Seamus advised pulling over and flagging Graeme down to cancel this mad endeavour. Logically, I knew he was right. But I was having none of it. Bulls-eyes on all three counts. Shem was there and waiting. Not a drop of rain had hit Burton. Lyle was in the middle of hosting a party and was hammered, but wasted no time grabbing another beer for the road and stumbled into my car. Despite losing the capacity for making any sense he naturally played quite well. There is also one other surprise. Kyle Grenier: Graeme got all the way down there and realized he didn’t pack his skates. He tried fitting into a pair of Seamus’ old skates, but they were too small, so he said ‘F*ck it, I’m playing goal.’ Graeme finally played goal, and he was pretty good. Lyle stood on his head for the first two games (over .900) even though he couldn’t say a word. And I broke Lee’s season scoring record. The numbers are kind of short now… I’m off to Kelowna tomorrow but I’ll be back later this month and hopefully we can play again. I’ve got Shem’s number in Kelowna; he’s pumped. We really want to get a third league going (Kelowna Association for Socialist Hockey). I should get Troy to start one in Red Deer- RASH! K.J’s there, too. http://www.burtonhockey.com/boxscores.php?action=view_session&id=308&view=all Sun, 29 August 2010 00:00:00 PST Bernie Koth-Kappus The day began with a thick cover of dark ominous clouds, but with no precipitation falling and the ground dry as a bone, hockey naturally was on. Ironically, we were soon wishing for some more of those thick clouds, as the sun’s heat would scorch us for most of the session. Today would see the return of a couple of relatively long absent regulars (Ryno and Pat), as well as a new addition (Charles, another friend of Eric’s). Also of note, this was the largest turnout we’ve had in a while resulting in a total of 9 skaters for a good portion of the session. Initially it was a little difficult finding balanced teams, which was mostly due to Pat absolutely ripping it up in the first few games of the session. Eventually we were able to find teams that created some more even games and this would produce an epic 7 game series which included multiple redemptions and a few near redemptions. Pat, Eric, Tony, Bernie, Ryno & Alex took on Stefan, Ollie, Sam, Charles & Dom (note: Ryno would only play in the first game of the series after his hurt shoulder from inner tubing would get the best of him). After PETBRD took the first game, SOSCA got their redemption by winning the next two in a row. It should be noted that Dom was masterful in these two games letting in only 3 goals on well over 60 shots, many of them 2-on-1’s and Elischer breakaways; there was a good 45 minute stretch where he didn’t let anything by him at all, which frustrated the heck out of Team PETBD. Next, however, it was PETBD’s turn for redemption and they would have it by finally solving Dom and taking the next two games by the same score (5-0, 5-3) and winning the best-of-5 series. It should be noted that Al really stepped up his game at this point as well. Since everyone had a little left in the tank, it was decided to extend the series to 7 games. PETBD came out strong and took a 4-0 lead early. But SOSCA roared back, lead by Sam’s ripping banana curve shot, with 4 unanswered goals to take it to sudden death OT, nearly getting redemption once again. Nevertheless, PETBD finally put it away. With PETBD winning the series 4-2 and everyone pretty much exhausted after playing 10 games, the session was called. As this was one of the larger, longer sessions in a while (and the second in a row), it certainly seems like the summer doldrums are coming to an end and VRH is kicking back into full gear for the fall. http://www.burtonhockey.com/boxscores.php?action=view_session&id=307&view=all Sun, 29 August 2010 00:00:00 PST Bernie Koth-Kappus VRH’s longest absence in many a month was finally broken on this day; not without a few hurdles though. As has been too common of an occurrence lately, the weather forecast a couple days beforehand was absolutely wrong, calling for showers on what turned out to be clear sunny day. Knowing the folly of listening to meteorological “experts”, we organized a session regardless. With the people count looking rather slim and only one goalie confirmed, the session was in series jeopardy on this front as well. Last minute confirmations from Marcus and Eric + friend, and Joern volunteering to play goal, however, ultimately saved the session. We also expected to see Shaylin come out of semi-retirement for this session, but alas he was too busy with yard work (AKA picking flowers from his garden for his lovely new summer dress). The first teams of the day saw Eric, Gordan, Ollie and Dom versus Rob, Stefan, Bernie and Joern. This was a close, intense series with team EGOD squeaking out a 5-4 victory. At this point Marcus arrived, which ended up being perfect timing as Gordan was just on his way out. Sticks produced teams of Eric-Rob-Bernie (Dom in net) vs Stefan-Ollie-Marcus (Joern in net) which ended up being surprisingly even. After barely losing the first game (5-4), Rob and Eric's up-tempo high energy game became quite effective at neutralizing the finesse style of SOM, allowing team ERBD to take the next two games 5-0 and 5-4. Of course SOMJ wanted redemption and redemption they would have, wining the next game 5-4. Dom was absolutely spectacular in this series stopping a plethora of odd man rushes and making show stopping saves too numerous to count. Joern, though he let a few weird ones slip by him (specifically in the 5-0 game), made his share of spectacular saves as well, and was solid despite not having manned the pipes in many a month. As this was one of the more intense, gruelling and drawn-out series in a long time (with the hot sun bearing down all the while) everyone was pretty much spent after the 5th game and the session was called. http://www.burtonhockey.com/boxscores.php?action=view_session&id=306&view=all Sun, 22 August 2010 00:00:00 PST Bernie Koth-Kappus This day started out with a bottle of Tequila…and I do say “day” because it was literally the next day by the time the first phase of the beer brewing process was completed and Rob began to pour us shot after shot. Naturally, once the bottle was done some stealthing was in order leading into the wee hours of the morning. Although, the lone casualty of this debauchery was Jordan “Bones” Downey, it also had the effect of rendering the Klopp caravan a good 40 minutes late and pushing the start time back to after 1pm. Once we were at the rink another interesting incident delayed the start time a little further. A scruffy nerfherder homeless looking guy who was either very drunk, had some serious mental issues, or both, would come right up to us and proceed to stare at one of us and not move (like a “statue”). Then he asked us for pot and eventually began yelling at us that we stole his wallet. Suffice it to say everyone was a little uneasy about him lurking around (especially after he picked up one of our hockey sticks) and Rob took charge by finding the beach police who eventually escorted him away. Although it was a warm sunny afternoon, the temperature were not exorbitant and with the breeze off the water the weather conditions, thought not ideal, were certainly playable. Also of note: today would see the debut of our first ever Swedish player, Viktor Jedeskog. The fact that he hadn't rollerbladed in a very long time was evident by a couple of big crashes early on, but his hockey sense was ever present and he certainly managed to hold his own (coming from Peter Forsberg's homeland it was no wonder he had great hockey sense). The first series was the longest and by far the most even of the day pitting Stefan, Sam, Rob, Bernie and Nick against Barlow, Melvin, Viktor, Ollie and Alex. Team SSRBN took the first game, but team BMVOA soon got redemption winning the next two; then it was time for SSRBN to once again get redemption winning the next two games to take the best of 5 series. This was also one of the more intense up-tempo series in recent memory. After this series we played a few more games, but using sticks it was difficult to find balanced teams. Despite a few setbacks this was, all considered, a great day of hockey. http://www.burtonhockey.com/boxscores.php?action=view_session&id=305&view=all Mon, 02 August 2010 00:00:00 PST Kyle Kusch Pat Elischer set a new standard in one-day scoring for Burton Hockey on Saturday with 56 points in 13 games, including an astounding 46 goals, showing once again why he is the top skater in Burton Hockey today. http://www.burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=140 Mon, 26 July 2010 00:00:00 PST Kyle Kusch We've uploaded shots from two VRH sessions uploaded, including pics of the Tony Hajdu wedding session and the infamous 'Battle With The Kids' at William Griffin Park. http://www.burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=139 Wed, 07 July 2010 00:00:00 PST Kyle Kusch Sunday's return of Logan Marchischuk to the Burton fold made him the first player in history to return after over a decade. In the history of Burton Hockey, there have been ten players who have returned after an absence of four or more years. http://www.burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=138 Wed, 30 June 2010 00:00:00 PST Kyle Kusch You can now view our entire master list of roller hockey-ready rinks in southern mainland BC in Google Maps and Google Earth. http://www.burtonhockey.com/news.php?action=show_article&article=136 Wed, 02 June 2010 00:00:00 PST