The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) is already in their third month of the 2024-25 junior hockey season.
The Great Falls Americans (14-6-1-0), ranked third currently behind the Helena Bighorns (18-2-0-0) and the Sheridan (WY) Hawks (15-5-2-0), have played tonight’s opponent, the #6 Butte Irish (9-11-1-0) just twice so far in a home-and-away series with each squad taking a win.
During the home game with the Irish on October 25th, the Americans pulled away with a 4-2 decision. Ty O’Bey scored two goals in the third frame as Great Falls trailed 2-0 early in the game before scoring four straight goals. Kaden Rhyder had 24 saves for his ninth win. Dylin Harildstad and Loghan Weber chipped in goals for Butte. Butte’s Manny Pantow added 45 saves in the loss.
The following evening on October 26th, both teams met at the Butte Community Ice Center, where the Irish scored twice in the first and third periods to down the Americans, 5-4 to end the Americans five game win streak. Loghan Weber (Butte) and Ty O’Bey (Great Falls) registered two goals apiece for their respective teams. Manny Pantow gathered his first win against Great Falls by stopping 44 of the 48 shots sent his way. Kaden Rhyder had 41 in the loss.
Since their late October encounter, the Irish have gone 3-3-1-0 while Great Falls is 3-1-1-0.
Great Falls Americans forwards Zac Orwig and John Lang each recorded hat tricks to help the #3 Great Falls Americans power past the #6 Butte Irish, 7-1 during Saturday’s NA3HL junior hockey action at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
The Americans took advantage of the Irish penalty five minutes into the first period as Zac Orwig scored his 12th goal with an assist from Ty O’Bey, who collected his fifteenth and from Fisher Hannesson, who made his eighth assist. The Irish needed eight minutes after Orwig’s scoring drive to get a goal of their own. Kazden Stineff evened the score with assistance from Weston Villers and Easton Langemo. Villers score came with the Americans in the sin bin with 1:40 left in the period. The Americans responded quickly (23 seconds later) as John Lang tossed in his seventh score with assistance from Ty O’Bey and Keegan Hanson to give the Americans back the lead (2-1) before intermission.
Great Falls raced out to a 3-1 lead 63 seconds into the second stanza. Zac Orwig slapshot lit up the lamp for the second time tonight. Jurzy Allard and Garren Narvaez accumulated the assists. John Lang capitalized on the Irish miscue and scored his second lamplighter off the stick of Cal Laggis and Ty O’Bey for the Americans fourth goal. Zac Orwig answered for the third time (hat trick) 97 seconds after Lang’s score. John Lang’s tenth assist with the Americans increased the advantage for the host team, 5-1. Garren Narvaez, the team assist leader, created his 23rd assist. While Butte was down a man (penalty), Great Falls’ John Lang also scored his third goal of the game off a dish by Ty O’Bey and Fisher Hannesson for a five-goal lead (6-1). Gavin Denis also put in a goal during the Americans five-goal outburst. His third goal came with a helper from Jace Troyer and Fisher Hannesson. Great Falls’ offense attempted 37 shots while holding Butte to 14 after two periods of play.
Despite many attempts, neither team was able to put any scoring drives together in the third period.
John Lang led the team with three goals and one assist, Zac Orwig also finished with three goals, while Ty O’Bey and Fisher Hannesson registered four assists and three assists, respectively for the Americans. Kazden Stineff scored the lone goal for Butte with assists from Weston Villers and Easton Langemo.
Great Falls took half of their shots in the second period (22) to end with 40. Butte had nine of their 21 in second stanza.
Great Falls scored two of their seven goals while the Irish were in the sin bin (2-for-7 on the power play) and Butte scored once on the power play (1-for-6). Both teams combined for 13 minor infractions.
Patrick Forsythe (2-0-1-0), one of five Canadians suiting up for the Americans, added his second win of the season to his resume. Forsythe had 20 saves while allowing one first period goal. The Irish utilized two goaltenders to try to slow down the Americans. Tim Nanson (5-5-1-0) got the start and stopped 13 shots in 28 minutes. Logan Hunter replaced Nanson in the second stanza swatted away 20 shots.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Austin Uecker scored the first of his two goals in the first period to lead the #1 Helena Bighorns to win their 17th game (17-2-0-0) by posting a 5-2 decision over the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (10-8-1-1) on Saturday night in Bozeman, Montana. In addition to Uecker’s two goals, the Bighorns received scores from Kade Pareja, Finn Theriault, and Jason Hammett. Reid Wilkinson and Lex Steckelberg scored for the Ice Dogs. Tyler Miller is now 6-2-0-0 on the season with both blemishes coming from Great Falls. Miller had 26 saves for one of the top teams in the NA3HL. San Jose, California netminder Brett DeVincent was busy in the net deflecting 41 shots for his fourth loss (6-4-0-0).
Sheridan standouts Josh Serino (3 goals) and Logan Hume (2 goals) combined for five goals as the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (15-5-2-0) picked up the weekend sweep against in-state rival, #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (9-12-1-0) with an 8-4 win in Gillette, Wyoming. On Friday, November 22nd, the Hawks won 8-3 in Sheridan, Wyoming. Riley Schmidt scored two goals and teammate Chase Borene had one for the Wild. Sheridan’s John Simon outdueled his counterpart, Tate Cothern from Gillette, in the goal. Simon is 8-3-0-0 on the season by swatting away 33 shots. Tate Cothern accrued 29 saves in his fifth regulation loss (4-5-0-0) in ten appearances.
When the #5 Badlands (SD) Sabres (10-9-2-1) and the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-21-1-0) played on Friday night, the game went into overtime with the Sabres winning 3-2. On Saturday, the Sabres held a 5-3 lead after the first period before the visiting Sabres scored nine unanswered goals over the final two periods for a 14-3 romp over the Quake. Cole Schneider led the way with three goals for the South Dakota NA3HL team while three teammates, Zach Vockler, Kyyan Jahner and Thayne Coston each scored twice. The three first period goals for Yellowstone were scored by Logan Nichols, Jordan Murray and Max Goulden. Hunter Oger (Badlands) went 2-0 this weekend by improving his record to 4-2-1-0 by stopping all 25 shots in 45 minutes in the goal. Jackson Roethler started for the Sabres allowing three goals and picking up four saves. Hayden Laforet (0-2-1-0) took the loss with 29 saves and Matthew Neeser ended the game with 26 saves.
