The #3 Great Falls Americans are 1-2-0-0 before Saturday’s rivalry against the #1 Helena Bighorns (16-2-0-0), who are the top squad in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division and are one of the premiere teams in the five-division North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) in recent seasons.
Great Falls (12-6-1-0) is responsible for the lone (3-2) setback for the Bighorns on September 21st in Great Falls. The Americans lost 7-1 on September 20th and 6-2 on September 28th at Steed Arena in Helena, Montana.
Ty O’Bey, eleventh in the league with 29 points, leads the Americans with 16 goals and is fourth on the team in assists (13). The assist leader is Garren Narvaez, who has 19. O’Bey and Narvaez have played in all 19 regular season contests for coach Greg Sears.
Helena’s Finn Theriault continues to carry the Bighorns by producing 16 goals and 13 assists (29 points). Kelton Chadwick chipped in a team-high 17 assists for coach Damon Hanson’s team.
After two scoreless periods, the #3 Great Falls Americans edged the top-ranked Helena Bighorns, 1-0 thanks to a third period goal by Americans forward Blayne Jusczak during NA3HL junior hockey action at Steed Arena in Helena, Montana. Goaltender Kaden Rhyder redirected all 47 shots in his eleventh win.
Both offenses failed to score during the first and second periods. Helena outshot Great Falls, 32-20, during that stretch.
The visiting team lit up the lamp once in the third period as Sebe Perez found Blayne Jusczak, who put the puck in the net over Helena goalie Tyler Miller four minutes into the last period of regulation. Jusczak’s goal was the sixth of the season for the first year forward from North Pole, Alaska. Perez chipped in his ninth assist.
Despite the first shutout loss for Helena this season, they attempted 20 more shots (47-27) than Great Falls.
The fourth meeting between these two interstate rivals saw 18 power play chances go unanswered and 23 total penalties that resulted in 67 minutes spent off the ice.
Kaden Rhyder (11-5-0-0) recorded 47 saves and his eleventh victory as he earned his second shutout of the season. His first shutout came against the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake on October 18th in Great Falls. He also picked up a 3-2 win against Helena earlier this season.
Tyler Miller is now 0-2-0-0 against the Americans this season. The Bismarck, North Dakota netminder (5-2-0-0) ended his seventh appearance by accruing 20 saves.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: A night after the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (10-6-1-1) came back to send their game with the Americans to overtime (where Great Falls won 6-5), the Ice Dogs led 4-3 into the third before the #6 Butte Irish (9-9-1-0) scored early in the third period to send the game into an extra period. Bozeman’s Spencer Wilkinson scored the second of his two goals in overtime to escape with a 5-4 win and maintain their fourth seed in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division. Devin Bruns also scored two goals for the winning side. The Irish received goals from Toby Kerr, Loghan Weber, Andrew Browe, and Kazden Stineff. Brett DeVincent has now won six of his eight contests (6-2-0-0) for Bozeman as registered 51 saves while Butte’s Tim Nanson (5-4-1-0) stopped 59 shots.
The second-ranked Sheridan (WY) Hawks (13-5-2-0) downed the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-20-0-0), 5-1 to earn the weekend sweep and prevented the Quake from getting their first victory. Five different Hawks players recorded goals including Gavin Elliott, Logan Sidlauskas, Josh Serino, Vincent Leaf and Elijah White. Sheridan allowed just 13 shots-on-goal by Yellowstone while they acquired 78. Macen Heisler, who participated in seven games for Great Falls this season, added his third goal of the season in the first period for Yellowstone. Ryan Rainey, who has now won three of his four contests (3-1-0-0) for the Hawks, collected 12 saves. Yellowstone’s Hayden Laforet suffered his first defeat (0-1-0-0) by stopping 73 of the 78 shots sent his way.
The #7 Badlands (SD) Sabres (8-9-2-1) and the #6 Gillette (WY) Wild (9-10-1-0) did all their scoring during the middle period. Gillette’s Brady McGinn scored first but Badlands received back-to-back goals from Kyyan Jahner and Gaven Marx to help the Sabres get their eighth win. Neither team scored in the third frame. Both goals by the Sabres occurred while Gillette was in the penalty box. Lochlin Jackson improved to 4-2-1-1 and had 21 saves for the weekend sweep over the Wild. Tate Cothern is now 2-1-0-0 against the Sabres and ended the game with 25 saves.
