Americans Come From Behind to Defeat the Irish, 4-2 in First Meeting, Improves to 8-1 at Home

Photo credit Kevin Scott The Great Falls Americans have now faced six members of the NA3HL’s eight-team Frontier Division when they challenged the Butte Irish on Friday (Great Falls will play the Gillette Wild, November 8-9) after two months of NA3HL junior hockey action. Great Falls is in second place in the Frontier Division thanks to four consecutive wins over the previous three weeks with two victories each against the Badlands (SD) Sabres and the Yellowstone (WY) Quake and they took one of two games against the Sheridan (WY) Hawks. After 14 contests, Great Falls (10-4-0-0) is led by Ty O’Bey with 12 goals and 22 points while Garren Narvaez has a team-high of 16 assists. Goaltender Kaden Rhyder (9-3-0-0) has 367 saves through 12 appearances and a win percentage of 0.941. All three members also played last season for Great Falls. Meanwhile, the Irish (5-7-0-0) return nine players and head coach Marc Brodeur back from the 2023-24 season. Loghan Weber has nine goals to lead Butte. The team assist and points leader is Andrew Browe with 17 and 25, respectively. Tim Nanson is 4-3-0-0 on the season in the net and has 192 saves and a win percentage of 0.873. After starting the season with a pair of wins against the Gillette (WY) Wild, they have won three of their last six games. In addition to their two wins against the Wild, they also downed the Yellowstone (WY) Quake twice and the Sheridan (WY) Hawks once. It was “Think Pink for the Girls” Breast Cancer Awareness Night on Friday night. The Americans promotion featured special edition pink game jerseys and a figure skating exhibition during the first intermission by the Great Falls Figure Skating Club. Two of the Americans game sponsors, Life in Bloom Floral and Gift Boutique and She Bare Wax and Sugar raffled off gift baskets. The ice inside the Great Falls Ice Plex was painted pink and special edition jerseys signed by the Americans players were auctioned off with the proceeds going to “Think Pink for the Girls.” The auction began on Friday morning (October 25th) and will run through Sunday, November 3rd. Fans can register with DASH (QR Code) and place your bid on your favorite player’s pink jersey. The Americans donated a dollar for everyone in attendance on Friday that was matched by City Chevrolet. There was also a signed and framed 8”x10” team photo in the Pink Jerseys for sale. Thanks to Benefis Health Sletten Cancer Institute for making this night possible. The #2 Great Falls Americans trailed 2-0 in the second period to the #6 Butte Irish before they scored four unanswered goals to claim a 4-2 victory and improve their home record to 8-1 on the season duringFriday’s NA3HL junior hockey action at the Great Falls Ice Plex. Ty O’Bey led the Americans with two goals in the final period. Great Falls trailed Butte 1-0 before the first intermission as North Dakota native Dylin Harildstad converted his first goal with the Irish that was set up by Keegan Adams and Toby Kerr. The first score ofthe game came with 11:41 remaining with the Americans in the sin bin. Both squads combined for 28shots-on-goal. The Americans and Irish each registered a goal during the second period. The Irish’s Loghan Weber accumulated his ninth goal early in the stanza with assists going to Weston Villers and Andrew Browe to increase the lead for the visiting squad. Gavin Denis, one of five forwards from the state of Wisconsin on the Americans team, tacked in his second score of the season with under two minutes left before the second intermission. The unassisted tally for Great Falls cut the lead for Butte in half, 2-1. The 2-1 score would stay that way until the middle of the third frame when Aiden Kennedy drove around the net and found Ty O’Bey for the lamplighter over Irish goalie Manny Pantow to even the contest (2-2). Matt Beazley scored the go-ahead goal with 4:36 left in regulation. The first-year player from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada acquired his first goal with Sebe Perez and Blayne Jusczak gathering the assists. Ty O’Bey answered again for the twelfth time this season with two minutes remaining to ensure the Americans would pick up their tenth win of the season. The home team attempted 15 shots in the first and third periods to finish with 49. Butte created 13 of their 26 total shots before the first intermission. Butte’s Dylin Harildstad was the only player from either team to score a goal on the power play. The Irish went 1-for-4 while Great Falls failed to capitalize on their four attempts. A total of ten penalties resulted in 36 minutes spent off the ice between these two Montana opponents. Kaden Rhyder’s sixty minutes in the net produced 24 saves to improve his overall record to 9-3-0-0.Manny Pantow of the Irish started strong in the first period but saw his record fall to 1-3-0-0 after allowing four straight goals but managed to add 45 saves to his resume. FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Josh Serino scored three of the five goals to help the #3 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (9-4-2-0) to a 5-0 shutout win on home ice against the #7 Badlands (SD) Sabres (4-7-1-1). Elijah White helped set up three scoring drives. John Simon was perfect in the net swatting away all 28 shots to improve to 4-3-0-0 on the season. Lochlin Jackson fell to 1-2-1-1, including 1-1 against Sheridan this year. Backup goaltender Jackson Roethler redirected all 15 shots sent his way. The #5 Gillette (WY) Wild (6-6-1-0) jumped out to a commanding 5-1 lead after two periods of action against the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-15-0-0) and scored four consecutive third period tallies to prevent the Quake from getting their first win of the season. Chase Hapka and Tai Kontrac each scored two goals and combined for seven assists for the winning team. Logan Nichols scored the lone, unassisted goal for Yellowstone with 14:58 left in the first period. The 9-1 win gave the Wild their sixth win and helped goaltender Josh Bieniewicz his second victory in three games (2-1-0-0). Matthew Neeser (Yellowstone) made 44 saves for his ninth straight loss (0-9-0-0). Meanwhile, the #1 Helena Bighorns (12-1-0-0) and the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (7-3-0-1) are IDLE tonight, but they will play a single game this week against each other in Bozeman, Montana on Saturday, October 26th at 7:30PM (MST).