Through seven meetings with the top-ranked Helena Bighorns (32-3-1-1), the #4 Great Falls Americans (22-12-3-1) have two wins, three losses, one overtime setback, and one shootout loss against their rivals.
The previous matchup between these Frontier Division foes was on January 10th when the Bighorns got by the Americans, 5-4 in overtime in Great Falls. After a scoreless first period, the Americans trio of John Lang, Chase Hapka and Aiden Kennedy put the home team ahead 3-0 early in the middle stanza. Austin Uecker and Finn Theriault scored for Helena before the third period to pull the Bighorns to within one goal (3-2). Zac Orwig’s score increased the Americans lead to 4-2. Helena then scored two goals by Kade Pareja and Jason Hammett before the end of regulation to force an overtime. Great Falls was 16 seconds away from deciding their sixth encounter when Helena’s Colin Becker lit up the lamp for the comeback win for the visiting team.
With the Badlands (SD) Sabres 5-3 decision over the Gillette (WY) Wild on Friday inside the Roosevelt Park Ice Arena in Rapid City, South Dakota, the Sabres (22-13-4-2, 50 pts.) have taken over the second spot in the NA3HL Frontier Division standings and have traded places with the Sheridan (WY) Hawks, who did not play this weekend as they moved down a spot to third place with a record of 23-11-2-1, 49 pts. The Great Falls Americans (22-12-3-1, 48 pts.) are now in fourth place after two losses this week.
After Saturday’s contest, the Americans and Bighorns will face off for the final time on Friday, February 14th at 7:05PM (MST) at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
The top-ranked Helena Bighorns erased a second period (3-1) deficit to comeback to even the game before the end of regulation and after a scoreless overtime set up a shootout where they escaped with a 4-3 win over the #4 Great Falls Americans on Saturday night in Great Falls.
Helena and Great Falls each put the puck in the net for their respective teams in the first period. The Bighorns struck first when Austin Uecker’s pass to an open Jason Hammett, who buried the puck in the net for the 1-0 lead with twelve minutes on the clock. Finn Theriault received the secondary assist. Great Falls evened the score (1-1) six minutes after the Bighorns scored when Fisher Hannesson’ slapshot got by Helena netminder Tyler Miller with a helper from Ty O’Bey, who now has 26 assists and Zac Orwig, who created his 29th assist. The first twenty minutes saw 29 total shots between these two rivals.
The Americans played tough and physical hockey and outscored the Bighorns, 2-0 in the second stanza. Aiden Kennedy recorded his 20th goal of the season during the first three minutes when Helena was in the sin bin. Ty O’Bey collected his second assist of the night and John Lang provided his 23rd assist of the year. The home team’s 2-1 lead lasted until the final 17 seconds when John Lang netted his 15th goal with assistance from Keegan Hanson and Garrett Driscoll. Each squad ended the second period with identical first period shot attempts, 17-12 in favor of Helena.
Helena’s offense scored two unanswered goals in the third frame during a 2:27 span to even the score at 3-3. Trey Pareja scored off a pass from Caden Fenstein and Colin Becker with 12:15 left and then with 10:48 shown on the clock, Chase Berg tacked on the game-tying goal with Cam Young setting up Helena’s third scoring drive. Both squads could not find a way to put the biscuit in the basket for the rest of the period so a five-minute extra period was necessary.
The five-minute overtime did not produce any goals, so a shootout was necessary.
Jason Hammett of the Bighorns, who added a goal in the first period, was the only player to accumulate a score against the opposing goaltender in the shootout to give the visiting team another victory. Bighorn teammates Finn Theriault and Austin Uecker were unsuccessful in their attempts. Meanwhile, Ty O’Bey, John Lang and Aiden Kennedy came up empty in their one-on-one attempts against Helena goalie Tyler Miller.
Helena outshot Great Falls 47-31 after three periods and finished with a 53-44 shots-on-goal advantage.
The Bighorns capitalized on one of their three power play chances while Great Falls scored once on their six tries. The top team in the Frontier Division ended the contest with nine penalties resulting in 39 minutes spent off the ice. Great Falls had five minor infractions called against them.
Tyler Miller (Helena) had 38 saves in 65 minutes in the net that helped him elevate his record to 11-2-1-0 and is now 3-2 as the netminder against Great Falls. The Americans started and finished with their new goaltender, Isaiah Paulnock (0-0-0-1) who made his debut with 47 saves over 65 minutes.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: A trio of Badlands (SD) Sabres scored two goals apiece including Dawson Wirth, Zach Vockler and Gaven Marx as the Sabres (22-13-4-2) moved up two spots (thanks to Sheridan’s bye week) from fourth to second place with their 8-3 road win and weekend sweep over the #6 Gillette (WY) Wild (17-20-1-0). Christopher Lang scored in the first and Brady Johnson and Riley Schmidt racked up two second-period goals for the Wild. Sabres netminder Lochlin Jackson improved to 7-4-2-2 on the season as he accrued 26 saves over three regulation periods. Gillette’s Wylen Cambensy (2-4-0-0) gathered 23 saves in 39 minutes before being replaced by former Great Falls American netminder Karanveer Kooner, who made 13 stops in 20 minutes.
Dan Upton of the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (20-14-1-1) scored the lone goal in the shootout to help his team claim a 6-5 victory over the #7 Butte Irish (15-21-1-2) during Saturday’s Frontier Division matchup in Bozeman, Montana. TJ Kelsey, Spencer Wilkinson, Sam Trufant, Devin Bruns, and Lex Steckelberg all scored in regulation for the Ice Dogs. Keegan Adams and Easton Langemo both scored twice, and Bobby Anselmo added one for the Irish. Baron Masopust, Spencer Wilkinson, and Andrew Kaunas participated in the shootout but failed to score for Bozeman. Andrew Browe, Loghan Weber, Kazden Stineff, and Keegan Adams all came away unsuccessful in their one-on-one shootout attempts for Butte. Brett DeVincent has a dozen victories (12-8-0-0) for the Ice Dogs as he swatted away 36 shots. Butte’s Nicolas Ulyanov is still looking for his first win (0-6-0-1) of the season after spending time with the Yellowstone (WY) Quake. Ulyanov allowed five regulation goals but still managed to block 38 shots.
The #3 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (23-11-2-1) and the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (1-27-1-0) have the weekend off.
