Americans Fall at Home on Friday to the Gillette Wild, 5-3

The #3 Great Falls Americans (21-11-2-0) hosted the #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (14-19-1-0) on Friday night in Great Falls for the first of the two weekend games in the series. On Saturday, both squads face each other in the series finale. The Americans and Wild met in Gillette, Wyoming during their first encounter this season on November 8-9, 2024, where Gillette took care of business on their home ice, winning 6-3 and then surviving 4-3 in overtime on the second night. In the 6-3 win on Friday, Gillette forward Max Arlt, who leads his team in goals scored (18), assists made (34) and points (52), scored two goals and had one assist. Goaltender Tate Cothern made 28 saves in the victory. Meanwhile, Great Falls was led by Aiden Kennedy (1 goal, 1 assist) and goaltender Kaden Rhyder acquired 19 saves. In Saturday’s performance, Gillette led 3-2 before the second intermission and Great Falls scored the lone goal by Aiden Kennedy in the third frame to send it to overtime. Gillette’s Tai Kontrec needed 79 seconds in the five-minute extra period to break the tie and give the Wild the home victory. The Slovenia native scored twice and added one assist. Tate Cothern swatted away 40 shots. The three scoring drives for Great Falls came from Ty O’Bey, Aiden Kennedy, and Jurzy Allard. Patrick Forsythe played in his second game and received his first loss of the season as the Americans goaltender. He finished with 26 saves in 65 minutes. Americans forward Ty O’Bey is ninth in the NA3HL with 48 points scored and has a team-leading 25 goals while teammate Garren Narvaez tops his teammates with 30 assists. The #7 Gillette (WY) Wild outscored the #3 Great Falls Americans 3-1 in the third period to claim a 5-3 decision over their Montana rivals on Friday night at the Great Falls Ice Plex. Tai Kontrec and Max Arlt combined for two goals and four assists for the Wild. Ty O’Bey and two former Gillette Wild players, Chase Hapka, and Jayden Rogen each put the biscuit in the basket for Great Falls. Great Falls’ Chase Hapka broke the scoreless tie with his 15th goal of the season 12:54 into the first period. Cooper Clouse and Aiden Kennedy were each credited with one assist apiece. In the second frame, Christopher Lang made his fifth lamplighter to even the score (1-1) two minutes into the period. Tai Kontrec tallied the first of his two assists while teammate Isaac Peterson added his first of the contest. Riley Schmidt and Ryan Kirkman assisted on Max Arlt’s 18th goal nearly three minutes later. Gillette’s 2-1 advantage lasted 25 seconds until Americans forward Jayden Rogen, playing in his first game after coming over this week from the Wild, recorded his first scoring drive of the season off a pass from Sebe Perez and Cal Laggis to even the score before the second intermission. Great Falls attempted nine more shots (32-23) than their opponents after the first forty minutes. The Americans came back from the break to regain the lead. Ty O’Bey registered his team-high 25th goal 31 seconds into the third for the 3-2 lead. Cal Laggis capitalized on his second assist of the night and John Lang earned his first. Fourteen minutes later, the Wild’s offense struck three times in 5:27 to earn their 14th win in 34 games. Tai Kontrec, Isaac Peterson, and Brady Johnson all added scoring drives to their resume for head coach Erick Bromberg’s squad. Max Arlt gathered two assists during that time frame while Brady Johnson, Beau Delich, Dylan Peterson and Tai Kontrec assisted on one scoring opportunity. Despite falling 5-3, Great Falls contributed 46 shots while limiting Gillette to 41. Both teams took 15 shots each in the middle period. Wyoming went 2-for-5 on power play chances with Tai Kontrec and Isaac Peterson’s third period goals occurred while the Americans were in the sin bin. Jayden Rogen’s second period score helped Great Falls go 1-for-4 while the Wild were in the penalty box. Both Frontier Division opponents combined for 11 total penalties to conclude their third meeting of the season. In ten appearances this season, Gilette netminder Austin Trieber improved to 4-6-0-0 by producing 43 saves and allowing three goals. Kaden Rhyder (17-7-1-0) had a busy night in the net for the home team. The Pennsylvania goaltender made 36 saves. FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Six different players scored for the #1 Helena Bighorns (27-3-1-1) shutout victory over the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (1-34-1-0) during Friday’s NA3HL action at Steed Arena in Helena, Montana. Branson Appelman (5-1-0-0) picked up his fifth win in six appearances in the net for the Bighorns. Chase Ebeyer (6-7-0-0), a goaltender from Scottsdale, Arizona, is now 0-4-0-0 with the Quake after starting the season with the Binghamton Buzz where he won six of nine contests. Ebeyer ended the game with 64 saves in the loss. The #4 Badlands (SD) Sabres (18-13-3-2) scored two goals in the opening period and three in the third frame as they prevailed over the #6 Butte Irish (15-17-1-1), 6-3 in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday. Zach Vockler amassed two goals and one assist while teammate Charlie Lorbiecki scored once and dished out two assists to help the Sabres win their 18th game of the year. Keegan Adams scored for the Irish in the first period followed by one goal apiece from Zachary Pilkinton and Andrew Browe in the middle period. Jackson Roethler is now 2-0-0-0 against Butte this season as he ran his record to 4-5-0-0 after swatting away 32 of the 35 shots he faced. Nicolas Ulyanov (0-4-0-0) had 47 saves in his debut for the visiting Irish after spending time with the Yellowstone Quake this season. The #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (17-13-1-1) trailed on the road to the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (22-10-2-0), 2-1 before the third period. Lex Steckelberg (two goals) and Andrew Kaunas (1 goal) finished the third period by outscoring the second-ranked Hawks, 3-0 for the 4-2 victory in Sheridan, Wyoming. Steckelberg ended the game with two goals and one assist while Kaunas created one goal and two assists to lead the Bozeman Ice Dogs to another victory. Daniel Shelden and Cody Hogan chipped in the goals in the second stanza for the Hawks. The winning goalie was Bozeman’s Brett DeVincent (10-7-0-0), who made 50 saves while Jaxson Stiller (0-1-0-0), playing in only his second game with the Hawks, stopped 32 shots in the setback.

Americans Fall at Home on Friday to the Gillette Wild, 5-3

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