By John DeCoste
The Valley major midget Wildcats provided themselves, their coaches and supporters with an early Christmas present, sweeping a two-game series from Pictou County Weeks Dec. 22 and 23 in New Glasgow.
The Wildcats won 3-1 Dec. 22 and 7-1 Dec. 23, snapping a 12-game losing streak dating back to early November.
The Cats also jumped back into sixth place with 23 points, two up on the seventh-place Cape Breton West Islanders.
In the opener, Weeks opened the scoring, but the Wildcats replied with three unanswered goals in the second and third periods to ice the win.
Zach Moody tied the score with his 12th goal of the season, a shorthanded marker late in the second period. The Wildcats put the game away with a pair of third-period goals by Jacob McNutt and John Deacon.
Jonathan Boutin stopped 25 of 26 shots in the Wildcats’ net.
The following day, Valley scored early and often, taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission and increasing the margin to 7-0 in the third period.
Moody had a hat trick while singles went to Grant Janes, McNutt, Nicholas Blanchard and Lukas Kane.
Boutin had another strong game for the Wildcats, stopping all but one of the 29 shots he faced.
Entering a lengthy mid-season break (the Wildcats next see NSMMHL action Jan. 20 at home against the South Shore Mustangs), Valley had scored 92 goals in 30 games, but had allowed 113 goals, the most of any team in the league.
Offensively, Moody led the team with 32 points on 15 goals and 17 assists. Blanchard had a team-high 18 goals to go with 12 helpers, Tyler Brown had 15 goals and 14 assists in 22 games and McNutt had 12 goals and 10 assists.
