The Walden Devil Bantams have snapped out of an extended rut and the Valley East Rebels are paying the price. After starting the Nickel District Hockey League season with three straight wins, the Devils then went nine games and more than a month before tasting victory again.

Walden carried the momentum of a 4-3 win last week over the Sudbury Minor Bantam "AAA" Wolves through to the Silver Stick, advancing all the way to the Bantam "A" final and eliminating Valley East in semi-final action with a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

Monday night at Centennial Arena, the Devils proved that was no fluke, scoring the only goal of the third period to walk away with a 2-2 tie with the Rebels, a team which sits 12 points ahead of them in league standings.

Mitchell Mousseau (Walden) and Eric Jones (Valley East) traded first period goals, before Patrick Labelle gave the Rebels a lead after two periods of play, connecting for the only goal of the middle stanza.

But just five seconds into a power play midway through the third, Walden converted, winning the faceoff back to defenseman Hunter Holub, who drilled home the equalizer.

"We thought they were going to come out pretty hard," said Holub after the game. "But we forechecked pretty hard and passed well tonight." Walden will try to maintain their recent stretch of well-played games, facing the Sudbury Bulldogs Thursday night at Carmichael, while the Valley is back in action on Sunday, making the trip to Little Current to face the Manitoulin Islanders.

In other NDMHL action on Monday, the Copper Cliff Redmen Major Peewees continue to run over most of their divisional opponents, pounding Valley East 9-1 as Kyle Liinamaa, Tristan Simeoni and David Ranger scored two goals apiece for the winners.

Felix Coté, Kyle Mallette and Evan Davies rounded out the scoring for the Redmen, while Nikolas Desantis replied in a losing cause. This week's snow storm has also played havoc with local minor hockey schedules as the North Bay Lucky 13 Trappers were forced to cancel a Tuesday night date with the Nickel City Peewee "AAA" Sons in Chelmsford, after an accident closed Highway 17 for part of the day.

The same two teams will meet this weekend in Powossan for a pair of games, while Sudbury travels to Sault Ste Marie to face the Greyhounds in Northern Ontario Peewee "AAA" Hockey League action.