February 16, 2024 – Great Falls, Mt
Welcome to School Daze hockey in Great Falls!! The Great Falls Public Schools did not have school today so students in Kindergarten through Eighth Grade got to come to the hockey game today for FREE with a purchase of an adult admission.
The Great Falls Americans have a doable but difficult road ahead if they want to make the postseason in three weeks. Great Falls (19-21-0-1, 37 pts.) faces the top-seeded Helena Bighorns (40-2-0-0, 80 pts.) twice (including today’s contest in Great Falls and Saturday’s showdown in Helena). The Americans will have to face their closest competitor in the NA3HL Frontier Division standings next week for three away contests in Rapid City, South Dakota against the Badlands (SD) Sabres (15-22-3-3, 36 pts.). After the road trip next week, Great Falls will have a clearer picture of their postseason chances but will need to maintain a top four spot in the standings after the regular season ends on March 2nd.
Helena returned to the Great Falls Ice Plex for the second time in three days. The Americans were hoping to steal a victory away from their rivals and separate themselves from the Sabres.
In Wednesday’s Valentine’s Day contest, Helena scored twice in the first and second periods to upend Great Falls, 4-1. Four different scorers gave the Bighorns their 39th win (Gavin Barr, Kai Robinson, Owen Gruener, and Hunter Coulombe). Sam Duehlmeier buried a goal for Great Falls before the first intermission. Jesse Schindel recorded 13 saves to keep his record unblemished at 13-0-0-0. Noah Van Herik made 57 stops for his second loss (0-2-0-0) of the season.
Helena Bighorns forwards Jack Lambert and Patrick Crooks each scored two goals to help the #1 Helena Bighorns to a 7-2 win over the #5 Great Falls Americans during a Friday afternoon matinee at the Great Falls Ice Plex. Ty O’Bey and Garren Narvaez scored both goals for the Americans.
Jack Lambert and Patrick Crooks scored the first two goals of the afternoon contest for the Bighorns. Lambert’s score occurred three minutes into the contest off the stick of Owen Gruener and Dylan Cunningham followed eleven minutes later when former Great Falls American and Butte Irish forward Patrick Crooks put in his 33rd goal of the season with assistance from Dylan Cunningham and Mason Eggen. Great Falls’ leading scorer, Ty O’Bey successfully connected on a pass from Dmitri Kuleshov and Luke Pizzey for Great Falls’ first scoring drive while the visiting team was in the sin bin to cut into the lead by Helena (2-1). Cai Robinson’s slapshot got through Americans netminder Anyon Bennett with 58 seconds left in the first period for the 3-1 lead after twenty minutes. Owen Gruener and Mason Eggen garnered the assists. Each team had one minor penalty.
Patrick Crooks put in his second goal for the top-ranked Bighorns midway through the second period with Trey Pareja and Gavin Barr collecting the assists. Before the period concluded, Helena’s offense lit up the lamp again. This time, Tim Mattingly racked up his 13th scoring drive with Ty Moore and Jason Hammett setting up the play.
Jack Lambert gathered his second goal of the afternoon and Hunter Coulombe added one as Helena led 7-1 through most of the third period until Americans newcomer Garren Narvaez got the puck in the net over Helena netminder Alex Lamont with eight seconds left.
Great Falls received three minor penalties while Helena committed seven penalties with 43 minutes spent in the penalty box. Both squads took advantage of two power play chances by scoring.
The Bighorns and Americans combined for 70 shots-on-goal.
The winning goaltender was Alex Lamont, (13-1-0-0) who finished with 16 saves in 60 minutes. Anyon Bennett took his third loss with Great Falls but is now 7-6-0-1 with most of his games being played while as a member of the NA3HL’s Granite City (MN) Lumberjacks. He made 45 saves.
NOTES: Forwards Dmitri Kuleshov and Sebe Perez received Honorable Mention honors for the weekly “NA3HL Stars of the Week” for the week ending February 11, 2024, for their play last week against the Badlands (SD) Sabres and Gillette (WY) Wild.
After their three-game road trip next week (February 23-25) to visit the Badlands (SD) Sabres, Great Falls will play their home season finale on Friday, March 1st at 7:00PM (MST) against the Butte Irish. This will be Billet Family Appreciation Night!
