The Great Falls Americans (9-6-1-1) and the Gillette (WY) Wild (7-5-2-0) have each met twice during the month of October, with each team picking up a victory. Saturday was their third encounter in Wyoming.
The Americans fell 4-3 on October 18th in overtime, and then on October 31st, Great Falls took the 4-1 decision over the Wild, with Cooper Clouse gathering two goals, AJ Prioli and Keegan Hanson had the other two. Kaden Rhyder took his third victory in the net for Great Falls, swatting away 21 shots while allowing one first-period score. John Vail scored before the first intermission for the home team. Austin Trieber lost for the second time in regulation (5-2-1-1) as the Wild netminder made 30 saves.
The Americans were hoping to go 2-0-1-0 before their next meeting in February 2026.
Cooper Clouse scored two goals and dished out one assist, including the game-winning tally, to lift the Great Falls Americans to a 4-3 overtime win over the Gillette (WY) Wild to complete the weekend sweep over their Wyoming counterparts on Saturday night in Gillette, Wyoming. AJ Piroli scored two goals and produced two assists for head coach Greg Sears’ squad.
The Wild took three minutes off the clock in the opening period before they found the back of the net first. Dylan Peterson scored off a pass from Ole Svangstu and Brady McGinn to give the home team the first scoring drive of the game. The 1-0 lead would last until the final six minutes, when the Wyoming crowd saw three goals occur during a 46-second span. Gillette scored their second and third goals with Ole Svangstu and Levi Ness both adding goals to their resume. Dylan Peterson and Brady McGinn assisted on Svangstu’s score, while Ness’ goal was made possible by Joshua Sauro and Caden Graham. Cooper Clouse of the Americans tacked on the first score for his club with Ethan Miller and AJ Prioli helping cut the deficit to 3-1 with 5:06 left in the first stanza.
Great Falls needed 64 seconds to begin the second period before they trimmed Gillette’s lead to 3-2. Ethan Miller and Gordon Jennings earned the assists on AJ Prioli’s lamplighter. AJ Prioli collected his second goal (ninth overall) of the period when Ethan Miller and Cooper Clouse set him up with 5:23 remaining before the second intermission to even the score (3-3). After two periods of play, both squads attempted over 20 shots-on-goal.
After a scoreless third period, Great Falls and Gillette headed to a five-minute extra period since neither squad was able to put the biscuit in the basket.
Great Falls forward Cooper Clouse scored the game-winning goal with 1:06 left in overtime to secure the weekend sweep over their Wyoming rivals, with helpers going to AJ Prioli and Gordon Jennings. Prioli and Jennings each finished with two assists for the Montana NA3HL club.
This was the second overtime win this season as the Americans edged the Helena Bighorns back on September 27th in Great Falls, 4-3.
The Americans outshot the Wild in the final two periods (27-18) to finish with 35. The Wild tallied 11 of their 28 shots in the middle period.
The third meeting saw a combined ten power play opportunities go unanswered between these two opponents.
Cole Murphy (6-2-1-0) won his sixth game in his first season with Great Falls. He stopped 25 of the 28 shots he faced in 61 minutes of action. Matthew Bennett fell to 2-0-1-0 for Gillette as he made 31 saves in the loss.
By Kevin Scott: November 1, 2025 – Gillette, Wy
