The stakes have been raised in the head-to-head battle between the Valley Wildcats and the South Shore Lumberjacks. The West Nova Scotia Regiment Challenge Cup will be awarded to the team with the most wins in their season series. The Wildcats and Lumberjacks will meet for the first time in the 2018-19 season at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Berwick.
The Regiment’s Commanding Officer is Lieutenant Colonel Ken Butterworth. His son, Jeremy, was drafted by the Lumberjacks 2nd overall in 2012 and amassed 16 goals and 29 assists in 49 games during the 2012-13 season. After playing a few games with Fargo in the USHL and 23 games with the brooks Bandits of the AJHL in 2013-14, Butterworth was traded to the Valley Wildcats. Over the next two and a half seasons in Berwick, Jeremy scored 39 goals and 68 assists in 102 games.
Wildcats General Manager Nick Greenough says, “The players on the Wildcats and Lumberjacks are the leaders of tomorrow and display some of the same characteristics of the men and women who serve, and have served, in the Regiment.”
The West Nova Scotia Regiment (WNSR) is one of the oldest infantry regiments in Canada, forming in 1936 from both the 69th (Annapolis, 1717) and 75th (Lunenburg, 1870), and served with distinction throughout World War II. A news release from the Wildcats says there are 352 graves of West Nova’s, stretching from Sicily to Holland, who paid the ultimate sacrifice, in addition to 1,084 wounded and missing. WNSR continues to send soldiers on United Nations peacekeeping tours and on active duty in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, the WNSR serves the Kentville, Bridgewater, Middleton, and Windsor communities.
*Updated October 21st with a photo off the ceremonial puck drop