Entering Friday’s contest with the Yellowstone Quake (6-13-2-0), the Great Falls Americans (13-7-1-1) have won three of the four encounters with the Quake. In the four previous meetings, Great Falls has racked up 17 total goals and allowed eight to the Cody, Wyoming based NA3HL franchise.
In the latest battle on the ice on October 25th in Great Falls, Great Falls led 7-0 through the first 58 minutes before giving up a goal in the final two minutes to erase the shutout. Ethan Miller was the standout in the contest as the forward from Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, racked up four goals and one assist. Kaden Rhyder, the Americans goaltender, swatted away 25 of the 26 shots attempted by the Quake’s offense. Shayne Smith delivered the lone goal for Yellowstone in the third period. Damen Baxter took the loss for Yellowstone as their netminder.
On Friday, Great Falls was looking for their sixth victory in seven games, dating back to October 31st, with four of those victories coming on the road. The Americans have bested the Gillette (WY) Wild, Sheridan (WY) Hawks, Butte Irish, and the Bozeman Ice Dogs during that stretch of regular-season contests.
Ethan Miller and Keifer Lundmark combined for four goals and two assists, and netminder Gunnar Bergo made 22 saves as the Great Falls Americans remained in third place in the NA3HL Frontier Division standings by posting a 7-3 victory over the Yellowstone Quake during the first night of Military Appreciation Night at the Great Falls Ice Plex on Friday evening. Great Falls is now 4-1-0-0 when playing Yellowstone after five head-to-head meetings.
During the first period, Great Falls took 20 total shots-on-goal that resulted in two scoring plays. Tallon Caron put the home team on the scoreboard first when he got the puck through Quake goalie Damen Baxter with 16 minutes remaining. Ethan Miller gathered his 14th assist on the score. Great Falls’ Keifer Lundmark accrued his second goal of the season ten minutes after Caron’s tally. Jaxen Savage and Tallon Caron earned the assists. The Americans defense held the visitors from Wyoming to ten shots in the first twenty minutes of action.
Both teams each traded two goals during the first eight minutes of the second stanza. Carson Joersz scored with Nolan Winkler assisting on the power play goal to cut Yellowstone’s deficit (2-1). Great Falls scored quickly (23 seconds later) as AJ Prioli and Cooper Clouse assisted on Ethan Miller’s 13th goal of the season. After earning an assist on the Quake’s first goal, Nolan Winkler tacked on a lamplighter off a pass from Tucker Sarkisian with the host team in the penalty box. Cooper Clouse drove through the lane to add his 13th goal of the season with 11:57 on the clock. Ethan Miller and AJ Prioli were each credited with one assist apiece to give the Americans a two-goal advantage (4-2). The Americans would put the biscuit in the basket once more before the end of the period. Kiefer Lundmark scored for the second time tonight, with Jaxon Savage and Tallon Caron collecting their second assists of the game.
Great Falls came out of the second intermission with a 5-2 advantage. That quickly changed as Ethan Miller took advantage of the power play opportunity and secured his second goal of the night, set up by Cooper Clouse and Tallon Caron 56 seconds into the final period of regulation. The Americans scored their seventh goal thanks to a shot by EJ Sanchez near the net off a pass from Fisher Hannesson with less than seven minutes remaining. Gavin Denis received the secondary assist. Before the contest ended, Yellowstone’s Colby Jensen, who started the season with the Butte Irish, put the puck in the net for his first scoring drive of the season. Julian Merschdorf and Shayne Smith assisted on the third score for the Wyoming NA3HL team.
Great Falls produced more 49 shots-on-goal in 60 minutes of ice time. Yellowstone, who had a team high of 13 in the third frame, finished with 35.
Two of Yellowstone’s three goals came with the Americans in the sin bin. The Quake went 2-for-5. Ethan Miller’s third-period goal came while the visiting team was down a man (penalty). Great Falls went 1-for-2 on the power play.
Four players led the charge for the winning team. Ethan Miller was one goal shy of a hat trick (2 goals, 2 assists), Kiefer Lundmark, who also celebrated a birthday today, registered two goals, Cooper Clouse had one goal and dished out two assists, and Tallon Caron had one goal and a team high of three assists for the 13th win of the season. Nolan Winkler, Carson Joersz, and Colby Jensen each scored one goal each for the Quake. Winkler also had an assist in the first period.
Kaden Rhyder played the first twenty minutes, stopping all ten shots. But Gunnar Bergo played the final 40 minutes and had 22 saves in his third contest of the season. He is now 2-1-0-0, including a win against the Gillette (WY) Wild and a loss against the Quake earlier in the season. Meanwhile, Yellowstone netminder Damen Baxter (5-13-2-0) is now 1-3-0-0 when facing Great Falls. The Omaha, Nebraska native stopped 42 shots in the loss.
By Kevin Scott: November 21, 2025 – Great Falls, Mt
