Through the first six weeks of the 2025-26 NA3HL junior hockey season, the #5 Great Falls Americans (4-5-0-1) have now played five (of the other seven) teams in the Frontier Division.
Tonight’s opponent was the Sheridan (WY) Hawks, currently in the top team in the Frontier Division, have won eight of their eleven games (8-2-0-1) and returns 16 players from the 2024-25 season. The Hawks have an undefeated record against the Yellowstone Quake (3-0-0-0) and the Butte Irish (2-0), along with one win versus the Badlands (SD) Sabres (1-2-0-0) and the Gillette (WY) Wild (1-0-0-1). The Hawks, coached by JJ Santagata, are led by returning forward Vincent Leaf, who leads the team in goals scored (12) and assists (10).
Great Falls, under the direction of head coach Greg Sears in his eighth season with the squad, has three team leaders in Reid Lezubski (five goals), and Logan Mese and Cooper Clouse with five assists apiece. So far, the young Great Falls squad with ten returners from last season has two victories over Yellowstone and one win each versus the Helena Bighorns and Badlands, and have played the Bozeman Ice Dogs twice.
Last season, Great Falls went 4-4-0-0 during the regular season against the Hawks before defeating them in the Frontier Division Semi-Finals in two games of their best-of-three series in March to advance to the Frontier Division Finals, where they fell to the Helena Bighorns in two games.
Great Falls got their first look at the Hawks on the road on Friday evening. Would they pick up a fifth win?
Jameson Clark scored two goals in the second period, and goaltender TJ Wonnacott swatted away 28 shots as the Sheridan Hawks cruised to a 7-1 win over the visiting Great Falls Americans on Friday night in Sheridan, Wyoming. Logan Mese scored in the second period for Great Falls.
Sheridan jumped out to a two-goal lead after the first twenty minutes. Charles Stow buried the first goal by the home team five minutes into the stanza off a pass from Deagan Watson. Sheridan’s second goal was made by Dean Schlarman on an unassisted scoring tally before the second intermission.
Great Falls’ Logan Mese cut the deficit in half (2-1) with his second goal of the season. The unassisted score came during the first three minutes of the middle period. The Hawks scored three unanswered goals to round out the period, highlighted by a pair of scoring drives by forward Jameson Clark and a single score from Deagan Watson with eight minutes remaining. Max Krueger added his eighth assist of the season for the 5-1 advantage.
Vincent Leaf, the Hawks leading scorer, needed five minutes of the third frame to gather his 12th goal to increase the lead to 6-1. Sheridan’s offense tacked on one more score before the game concluded as Jeff Slivon added his fifth lamplighter off the stick of Vincent Leaf, who now has 11 assists.
The Hawks outshot Great Falls in the first and third periods to end their first meeting of the season with 42 shots-on-goal while the Americans made 11 of their 29 shots in the middle period.
Jameson Clark scored two goals while teammates Deagan Watson and Vincent Leaf created one goal and dished out one assist for Wyoming. Logan Mese scored the lone goal for the Americans in the second period to prevent the shutout.
Sheridan took advantage of their power play opportunities by scoring three goals (3-for-6) with the Americans in the penalty box. Great Falls had six power play chances go unanswered.
TJ Wonnatott, the Hawks goaltender, stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced by the Americans for his third win of the season (3-1-0-1). Cole Murphy started the game for Great Falls and played the first 27 minutes and accumulating 14 saves, before backup Oscar Gribauvel took over and made 21 saves in 32 minutes. Murphy was credited with the loss (4-2-0-0).
By Kevin Scott: October 10, 2025 – Sheridan, Wy
