The third-ranked Great Falsl Americans (11-6-1-0) and the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (9-6-1-1) gathered on the ice on Friday night at the Great Falls Ice Plex for their third encounter of the 2024-25 NA3HL season.
Great Falls had already played two games before Bozeman made their season debut against them during the weekend of September 13-14. The Americans traveled to Bozeman’s Haynes Pavilion on September 13th and led 4-1 after two periods to top the Ice Dogs, 5-2. Ty O’Bey acquired his third and fourth goals of the year and his second assist in leading the charge for the Americans. Seth Hanson and Tyler Klingbeil accumulated the goals for the Ice Dogs. Kaden Rhyder stopped 20 shots while Bozeman netminder Brett DeVincent made 28 saves.
Both squads traveled to Great Falls the following night where the Americans scored all four of their goals before the second intermission. Ty O’Bey led both clubs with two goals with Easton Kennedy and Zac Orwig rounding out the scoring. Preston Wight denied the shutout by tallying his first score with eight minutes left. Great Falls defeated Bozeman, 4-1. Rhyder registered 32 saves in sixty minutes for his third win. Bozeman’s Jack Ryan finished with 24 saves in the loss.
Since the first two head-to-head meetings, the Americans were victorious in eight of the 13 games *8-4-1-0). Bozeman has picked up nine victories, four losses and one shootout setback (9-4-0-1).
The Great Falls Americans led 5-1 through two and a half periods before the Bozeman Ice Dogs fought back with four consecutive goals to even the contest at 5-5 before regulation ended. Aiden Kennedy provided the game winning goal 1:40 into overtime to prevent the comeback by Bozeman during Friday’s primetime matchup between these two Montana foes. Rookie Fisher Hannesson scored in the first and second periods to lead Great Falls in scoring.
Great Falls and Bozeman each put the biscuit in the basket once during the opening period. While the Ice Dogs were down a man (penalty), Americans defenseman Fisher Hannesson took advantage and put the home team in front first (1-0) with his first goal with the Americans. Ty O”Bey and John Lang collected the assists with 14:12 remaining. A quick turnaround for Bozeman as they needed 17 seconds after Great Falls’ lamplighter to score one of their own. Whitefish, Montana native Sam Trufant evened the contest (1-1) with his unassisted goal. The visiting Ice Dogs attempted twice as many shots (16-8) as the host squad.
Great Falls outscored the Ice Dogs, 3-0 in the middle frame. The trio of goals came during a four-minute stretch that saw Fisher Hannesson score his second overall goal and Blayne Jusczak add his fifth of the year and newcomer Jerzy Allard, playing in his third contest, pick up his second score. Sebe Perez assisted on two of the scoring drives while Garren Narvaez, Zac Orwig and John Lang added one each. The Hannesson and Jusczak goals occurred 52 seconds apart with Bozeman in the sin bin. The Americans outshot their rivals, 15-13
Ty O’Bey scored the fifth goal for the Americans as he successfully scored on a penalty shot by going one-on-one with Bozeman netminder Isaac Weatherford midway through the final period. Later in the period, Tyler Klingbeil pulled the Ice Dogs back to a three-score deficit on a power play with his sixth goal of the season off a pass from Spencer Wilkinson. The Ice Dogs stormed back and scored three unanswered goals in the last four minutes to even the game and send it to an overtime. Spencer Wilkinson scored two goals and teammate Lex Steckelberg provided the game-tying score with eight seconds remaining. Wilkinson added another assist while Sam Trufant, Michael Reich, TJ Kelsey, Cole Schowengerdt and Preston Wight also accumulated the helpers.
In the extra period, Aiden Kennedy buried the puck in the net off a dish by Garren Narvaez with 3:20 left in the five-minute overtime to seal the win for the third-place team in the Frontier Division.
Great Falls was led by defenseman Fisher Hannesson, who scored his first two goals as a member of the Americans hockey team. Ty O’Bey had one goal and one assist while John Lang, Sebe Perez and Garren Narvaez earned two assists each. Spencer Wilkinson did all his damage in the third period as he scored two goals and assisted on two scoring plays for the visitors.
Great Falls and Bozeman combined for 82 shots-on=goal with the Ice Dogs creating 45 shots.
The Ice Dogs penalty woes helped Great Falls score. The Americans made four of their six total goals while Bozeman was down a man. Bozeman finished 1-for-4 on the power play. The NA3HL on-ice officials whistled eleven penalties that resulted in twenty minutes spent off the ice.
Kaden Rhyder won his tenth game (10-5-0-0) on Friday in front of the home crowd swatting away 40 of the 45 shots sent his way. Isaac Weatherford, in his second season with Bozeman, has won one game, lost one in regulation and overtime, and suffered a loss in a shootout (1-1-1-1). The Missouri native ended the night with 31 saves.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Jeffrey Hershberger scored two goals and one assist to lead the top-ranked Helena Bighorns (16-1-0-0) to a 6-3 win over the #6 Butte Irish (9-9-0-0) during Friday’s action at the Butte Community Ice Center. Easton Langemo, Andrew Browe, and Ajay Schiller put in the goals for Butte. Malik Johnson (10-0-0-0) performed well in the net for the Bighorns by accruing 28 saves as he remains undefeated. Manny Pantow (3-4-0-0) made 47 saves in the loss for the Irish.
The #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (12-5-2-0) cruised to another victory as they blanked the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-19-0-0), 8-0 in Sheridan, Wyoming on Friday evening. Sheridan’s Josh Serino (three goals, one assist, hat trick) and Zach Longnecker (two goals, one assist) paced the winning side and kept the Quake off the scoreboard. The Hawks outshot the Quake, 59-14. John Simon had an easy night by preventing all 14 shots by Yellowstone from getting by him. Simon improved to 6-3-0-0 on the season. Meanwhile, Matthew Neeser (0-11-0-0) got the start picking up 12 saves before Hayden Laforet took over and finished with 39 saves.
The #7 Badlands (SD) Sabres (7-9-2-1) hosted the #5 Gillette (WY) Wild (9-9-1-0) in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday. After a scoreless first period, Badlands did all their scoring in the middle stanza as Easton Newman, Ryan Jordan, and Grady Nygaard lit up the lamp for the Sabres. A goal by Gillette’s Dylan Peterson in the third prevented the perfect game by Badlands netminder Lochlin Jackson. Jackson won his third contest for the Sabres (3-2-1-1) by posting 25 saves. Gillette’s Austin Trieber (47 saves) dropped to 1-4-0-0 in his first year with the Wild.
