The month of October has treated the #2 Great Falls Americans (9-4-0-0) quite well in the NA3HL Frontier Division standings. The Americans have won four of their five opportunities heading into Saturday’s second game of their weekend series with the #8 Yellowstone Quake (0-14-0-0).
The Americans split their weekend series (Oct. 3-4) in Sheridan, Wyoming against the Hawks and then won both contests at the Great Falls Ice Plex against the Badlands (SD) Sabres (Oct. 10-11). Great Falls earned a convincing 12-0 victory over the Quake on Friday, headlined by Blake Komrofske and Garren Narvaez each scoring two lamplighters. Kaden Rhyder played the first twenty minutes and earned his eighth win in eleven contests for the host squad.
Great Falls was confident that they could go 7-1 at the Great Falls Ice Plex this weekend with another win over Yellowstone on Saturday. Would they be able to pick up their ninth win?
The second-ranked Great Falls Americans, winners of seven of their eight home games, extended their win streak to three games with a weekend sweep against the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake during Saturday’s matinee at the Great Falls Ice Plex. Zac Orwig scored three goals and teammates Easton and Aiden Kennedy combined for four goals as the Americans cruised to an 11-1 win.
Great Falls led 2-0 after the first period as Zac Orwig got the scoring started eight minutes into the contest off a pass from teammate Matt Beazley. Aiden Kennedy, on an unassisted play, went behind the net and around Yellowstone netminder Matthew Neeser for the second tally with 6:48 on the clock. Yellowstone’s offense got just three shots off while Great Falls racked up thirty.
Ty O’Bey collected his tenth goal five minutes into the second period. Garren Narvaez and Aiden Kennedy set up the power play score for the 3-0 advantage. The Americans quickly tossed in another goal 54 seconds after O’Bey’s score. Blayne Jusczak took advantage of the Quake’s penalty by getting the puck in the net for his fourth overall score of the season. John Lang and Fisher Hannesson assisted on the Americans fourth score. Before the period expired, Easton Kennedy’s slapshot sailed by the Yellowstone goaltender for Kennedy’s eighth goal. Zac Orwig and Garren Narvaez earned the assists. Easton Kennedy put the biscuit in the basket again to give the home team a six-goal lead two minutes later with helpers coming from Zac Orwig and Keegan Hanson. Yellowstone connected for their first scoring drive when former Great Falls American Macen Heisler put the puck between the pipes. The unassisted tally came with under three minutes remaining.
Great Falls scored five consecutive goals in the final period. Zac Orwig scored two more (goals) for a hat trick. Aiden Kennedy answered with his second goal of the game and John Lang and Gavin Denis each provided one goal. Garren Narvaez and Easton Kennedy added two more assists in the final twenty minutes. Ty O’Bey, Aiden Kennedy, Zac Orwig, Blake Komrofske, and Masen Kerr picked up one assist apiece in the third period.
Zac Orwig scored a hat trick (three goals) and handed out three assists to lead the Americans to their third straight victory. Aiden and Easton Kennedy scored two goals and dished out two assists while Garren Narvaez created four helpers.
Macen Heisler prevented the shutout for Yellowstone with his single goal in the second period.
Great Falls contributed 32 of their 62 shots-on-goal after the first period. The visiting team from Wyoming took 19 shots.
Both teams combined for nine power play chances. The Americans scored on three of their four opportunities. The Quake’s five power play opportunities were unsuccessful.
Patrick Forsythe, who made his first appearance in the net for the home team, is now 1-0-0-0 on the season as he stopped 18 shots while allowing one goal. Matthew Neeser continues to find a way to get his first victory for the Quake (0-8-0-0). The Wisconsin goaltender swatted away 51 shots sent his way by the Americans offense.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: The top-ranked Helena Bighorns (12-1-0-0) escaped with a 6-5 win over the #6 Badlands (SD) Sabres (4-6-1-1) as Caden Fenstein provided the game-winning goal with 25 seconds left in regulation to keep the Bighorns win streak alive. Maddux Hale led the way for Helena by scoring two goals and dishing out an assist. Despite the setback, Zach Vockler scored three of the five goals for the Sabres. Tyler Miller, a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, is now 4-1-0-0 on the season by recording 33 saves. Badlands utilized two goaltenders with starter Hunter Oger making seven saves in nine minutes, but Jackson Roethler replaced him and finished with 31 saves for his second loss of the season.
Chase Hapka scored early in the first period as the #5 Gillette (WY) Wild (5-6-1-0) led 1-0 after two periods of play but the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (7-3-0-1) stormed back in the third frame with three straight goals to earn the come-from-behind, 3-1 victory to earn the weekend split over their Wyoming rivals on Saturday night in Bozeman, Montana. Andrew Kaunas, Reid Wilkinson, and Dan Upton tallied the goals for the Ice Dogs. Bozeman’s Brett DeVincent had 23 saves, and he was credited with his fourth win (4-1-0-0). Austin Trieber (0-1-0-0) played in his first game for the Wild but came up on the short end but not before securing 29 saves.
The #3 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (8-4-2-0) raced out to a 6-2 advantage over the #7 Butte Irish (5-6-0-0) before the second intermission and went on to defeat their Montana rivals, 7-4. Josh Serino scored two goals and goaltender TJ Wonnacott (4-0-2-0) redirected 44 shots for Sheridan. Andrew Browe scored one goal each in the first and third stanzas to lead Butte. Tim Nanson (4-3-0-0) played all sixty minutes for the Irish and ended the game with 31 saves.
