Americans Inch Closer to a Playoff Spot With Road Win Over the Butte Irish

Photo credit Michael Noel Photography The #3 Great Falls Americans (26-14-4-2) and the #6 Butte Irish (19-23-1-3) are both coming off a bye week as both teams close out the final regular season contests for the 2024-25 NA3HL season with a pair of contests on March 7-8, 2025. Butte played host on Friday night and Great Falls will end their season at home on Saturday evening. In six prior contests, Great Falls is 5-1 against Butte this year including three victories at the Great Falls Ice Plex. Their most recent encounter occurred on January 24th when the Americans toppled the Irish, 6-3 at the Butte Community Ice Center. Americans forward John Lang scored in the first and third periods while also assisting on a score to pace the Americans to another win. Ty O’Bey scored once and added two helpers. Bobby Anselmo, Toby Kerr, and Zachary Nimetz accounted for the trio of goals for Butte. Kaden Rhyder acquired 38 saves in the net for the visiting team. Nicolas Ulyanov was busy against the American’s offense picking up 53 saves in the loss. Ty O’Bey, Zac Orwig, and Garren Narvaez continue to pace the Americans. O’Bey has recorded 31 goals and 67 points while Narvaez, Orwig and O’Bey each currently have 36 assists for coach Greg Sears’ squad. Meanwhile, Easton Langemo lead head coach Marc Brodeur’s squad in goals scored with 34 while Loghan Weber has 80 points including 54 assists to lead the team in both categories for the Irish. Great Falls is almost assured of a playoff spot in next week’s Frontier Division Semi-Finals where the top four teams will make the postseason. The Irish finished their season with 19 wins but will not be going to the playoffs. Great Falls Americans forwards Ty O’Bey, John Lang and Aiden Kennedy combined for four goals and five assists as the #3 Great Falls Americans inched closer to a playoff berth by posting a 6-3 victory against the #6 Butte Irish during Friday’s second-to-last NA3HL Frontier Division contest of the season. The Butte Community Ice Center saw the Irish play for the last time this season at home. Aiden Kennedy, Jurzy Allard and Chase Hapka started the first period for Great Falls with three goals while the Butte Irish received scores from Toby Kerr and Jeremiah Campbell. John Lang assisted on two scoring drives while Ty O’Bey, Americans assist leader, Garren Narvaez, Zac Orwig and Aiden Kennedy each set up one scoring play for Great Falls. Weston Villers and Zachary Pilkinton helped Toby Kerr get his 13th goal of the season six minutes into the period. Kazden Stineff and Loghan Weber made Jeremiah Campbell’s goal possible with 1:33 remaining in the opening frame. After the first intermission, Matt Beazley earned two assists on both goals for Great Falls. Ty O’Bey also assisted on John Lang’s tally 26 seconds into the second while Fisher Hannesson tacked on an assist on Ty O’Bey’s score with 5:39 remaining. Before the period concluded, Butte pulled to within two goals (5-3) as Zachary Nimetz made his third goal of the year with helpers from Riley Erickson and Nathaniel Vocke. Aiden Kennedy ensured the Americans road win by scoring the lone goal in the final period off the pass from Cooper Clouse and Zac Orwig. The visiting team’s offense outshot the home team, 71-30 with 53 occurring after the first period. Each team scored one of their goals with the opposing squad in the sin bin. Great Falls (1-for-7 on the power play) was whistled for six infractions resulting in 20 minutes of penalty time. After going 1-for-5 on the power play, the Irish committed twice as many penalties (12) as the Americans that resulted in 77 minutes spent off the ice. Kaden Rhyder rejected 27 shots on 30 attempts by Butte’s offense. The Pennsylvania netminder is now 22-10-2-0 with a 5-1 record against the Irish. Tim Nanson started for the home team, but Logan Hunter finished after taking over in the second period. Nanson took the loss (8-10-1-0) but not before picking up 31 saves. Logan Hunter allowed one goal and stopped 34 shots in the final 25 minutes. Great Falls will say goodbye to nine members of the 2024-25 team as they age out and will play in their final regular season contest with the Americans on Saturday (Chase Hapka, Jayden Rogen, Zac Orwig, Matt Beazley, Sebe Perez, Masen Kerr, Garrett Driscoll, John Lang, and Cal Laggis). Masen Kerr (Illinois State University), Garrett Driscoll (Western Michigan University) and John Lang (University of Mary) have signed on (so far) to play at the college level next season. We thank them for their contributions to Americans hockey. FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Preston Wight’s goal put the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (26-17-2-1) in front of the top-ranked Helena Bighorns (40-4-1-1) at the end of the first period but the Bighorns home crowd helped them outscore their Montana opponents, 4-3 over the final two periods to force an extra period. The Ice Dogs and Bighorns were eight seconds away from sending the contest to a shootout when Helena’s Marcus Fritel scored to give Helena their 40th win in 46 contests as a large crowd at Steed Arena in Helena, Montana looked on. Ty Schell led the home team with two goals to help his squad to a 5-4 overtime win. In addition to Wight’s first period goal, Reid Wilkinson, Devin Bruns and Andrew Kaunas each answered with goals of their own in the setback for Bozeman. Tyler Miller ran his record to 14-2-1-0 by producing 23 saves. Bozeman’s Brett DeVincent (15-10-1-0) lost his first overtime decision of the season by stopping 32 of the 37 shots sent by Helena’s offense. Helena has already clinched the top seed for next week’s Frontier Division Semi-Finals. Bozeman is on the outside looking in as they fight for one of the final two playoff spots. The #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (28-14-3-1) have already made the playoffs but only scored one goal in the first period by Zach Longnecker and held the #5 Badlands (SD) Sabres (24-15-4-3) to a second period score by Sabres standout, Zach Vockler to send the contest to an overtime after neither squad put the biscuit in the basket in the third frame. Zach Vockler added his 34th score off a pass from Ryan Jordan three minutes into the extra period for a 2-1 home win in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday evening. Jackson Roethler made 22 saves and allowed one first period goal for his fifth victory in 13 appearances (5-5-1-0) for the Sabres. TJ Wonnacott (11-3-3-1) created 49 saves in his third overtime loss of the year. The #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (1-44-1-0) have struggled throughout the season on the scoreboard but in Friday’s 4-2 loss to their instate rivals (#7 Gillette Wild, 19-26-1-0), they did lead 2-1 after two periods of play. Cayden May and Logan Nichols scored in the first and second periods, respectively for the Quake. Gillette’s Hudson Fisher scored the first of his three goals (hat trick) in the opening period for the Wild. The Wild scored three straight goals in 2:46 span in the third stanza to secure a win on the road in Cody, Wyoming on Friday. Austin Trieber is now 6-10-0-0 as he swatted away 25 shots for the winning side. Matthew Neeser and Tucker Bayly both saw action in the net for the Quake. Neeser and Bayly combined for 52 saves but it was Bayly who suffered his fifth loss (0-5-0-0) and his second against the Wild.