Wildcats on winning streak
With eight wins in a row, the Valley Wildcats have secured third place in the standings and are making a run for second place as the regular season winds down.
“It’s a good little streak we’re on, it’s the time of the year when we want to be peaking,” says head coach Nick Greenough.
“We’re doing our job and we’re all business here. Hopefully the wins can keep coming.”
In the past two games, the Wildcats have scored a total of 16 goals, with a 7-3 win over the Yarmouth Mariners Feb. 22 and a 9-4 victory over the Amherst Ramblers Feb. 23.
The Wildcats meet up with the Ramblers again on Feb. 25 in Amherst, before hosting the Pictou County Weeks Crushers at home in Berwick on Feb. 27 for the team’s last regular season home game. The Wildcats have another three road games as well - against Amherst Feb. 28, South Shore March 6 and Yarmouth March 7 – and have a shot at securing second place in the standings if the winning streak continues.
“We wanted to get into the playoffs, that was our number one goal,” Greenough said.
“We’re confident, if we play our game, with strong goaltending, we’re a confident group. This little streak we’ve got going on now is good and we just want to be healthy going in and continue our streak.”
On Feb. 22, Jeremy Butterworth led the scoring against Yarmouth with two goals, while Nick Bruce, John Deacon, Austin Harding, Mitchell Jones and Josh Worthen added single markers.
In the Feb. 23 game against Amherst, only six Wildcats failed to pick up points, with Deacon, Worthen and Matt Wright each scoring two goals and Bruce, Butterworth and Jones each picking up one goal.
Greenough says that he isn’t concerned that a third-period skirmish between Amherst and Valley Feb. 23 – which included a second fight after stoppage in play, which will likely mean a suspension for Wildcat Dane Moore – will cause bad blood between the two teams in their remaining two games.
“I think it was just the way the play went, it got heated, and that could happen against Yarmouth or Truro or Pictou,” he said. “I think (Amherst coach) Josh (Hepditch) isn’t going to let their guys run around and make a disgrace of their organization with the last couple of games.”
Moore, he added, injured in the fight.
“He’s a character guy, he stepped up there. He gave up some size but his heart’s in the right place. It didn’t matter if the guy was six-six or Dane’s height, he was going to go to battle for us. The guys see that and they really respect it,” Greenough said. “I know what it’s like to be on that end, it’s not fun, but it’s all good.”
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Although it was a decisive win against Amherst and the two teams will face off two more times before the end of the season, Greenough says the Wildcats will need to be on their game with the Ramblers. Amherst has already been eliminated from playoff contention.
“They want to finish the year hard, they have guys who are looking for spots on the team next year and they’ve had some good games with us earlier in the year. We can’t take nobody for granted,” Greenough said.
“We’ve got to approach each game like we’re playing the first game of the playoffs. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing Amherst, Yarmouth, Pictou – we’ve got to be ready for each game.”