The Butte Irish (9-30-0-0) is the only team that the Great Falls Americans (24-13-1-1) have defeated in each of their matchups this season. Great Falls has been on the winning side in all five games and has not allowed the Irish to score more than 3 goals in their encounters this season.
Although the game was played in Havre, Montana, the Americans were the home team on the scoreboard. For the second year, the Americans have partnered with the Havre Youth Hockey Association to host one game per season at the Havre Ice Dome. A special thanks to our partners, Northwestern Energy and High Plains Wealth Management for their support. The ticket proceeds from Saturday’s contest will go toward the Havre Youth Hockey programs.
Since both teams played each other on January 24th, the Irish traded away one of their top scorers. Loghan Weber, who had 154 points in 103 games, was traded to the NA3HL’s Louisiana Drillers, the defending NA3HL Fraser Cup champions. Butte added Jacob Avgustovskiy, who now calls Chattanooga, Tennessee home, played high school hockey in Great Falls (2023-25). He appeared in eleven games for the Helena Bighorns and made his first goal during Friday’s 6-2 setback to his former team, the Helena Bighorns.
In recent weeks, the Americans added New Hampshire defenseman Brennan Pierce to the roster.
Great Falls and Butte will close out the 2025-26 NA3HL regular season on March 6-7 with a pair of games. Butte will host the Americans on March 6th (7:30 PM), and then the Americans will host the Irish in the regular season finale on March 7 at 7:05 PM.
Ethan Miller scored four goals on Saturday (a night after scoring three against the Bozeman Ice Dogs on Friday), and Cooper Clouse and AJ Prioli combined for two goals and nine assists as the Great Falls Americans outplayed the Butte Irish in all areas by coming away with a dominating 11-0 performance at the Havre Ice Dome in Havre, Montana.
Ethan Miller of the Americans picked up where he left in Friday night’s 3-2 road win over the Bozeman Ice Dogs when he scored all three goals. Miller, a forward from Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, scored two first period goals over a nine minute stretch. Great Falls took the early lead 2:57 into the opening period. Cooper Clouse and AJ Prioli recorded the assists. Miller lit up the lamp with eight minutes left off the stick of AJ Prioli and Wyatt Hanna to increase the lead (2-0). Clouse got on the stat sheet for the second time during the first twenty minutes when he buried the puck in the net while the Irish were down a man (penalty). AJ Prioli tacked on his third assist while Ethan Miller added his first. The Americans offense dominated by outshooting Butte, 21-7.
Great Falls had one of their biggest scoring periods of the season when they put together five consecutive scoring drives to give them a dominating 8-0 lead prior to the second intermission. Ethan Miller scored his third and fourth goals of the game within the first eight minutes of the middle stanza. Wyatt Hanna, Jase Troyer, and AJ Prioli also provided one goal apiece for head coach Greg Sears’ third place team in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division. Cooper Clouse and Bryce Webb each tallied two assists, while five other players, including Reid Lezubski, Gordon Jennings, Tallon Caron, AJ Prioli, and Wyatt Rust, all earned one assist each.
The Americans offense produced three goals in the third frame during an eight minute span. Brennan Pierce, a defenseman from New Hampshire, played in his fifth game with the Montana NA3HL franchise and scored his first goal with 14 minutes left in the contest. Cooper Clouse and AJ Prioli each accumulated another assist on the night. Jaxen Savage and Colton Bacon put the final two goals in the net. Tallon Calon and Gordon Jennings assisted on Savage’s score with 12 minutes remaining. Bacon’s score with six minutes left on the clock was made possible by Riley Hattan and Keifer Lundmark.
Great Falls created over 20 shots during each of the three periods to finish their 39th game with 68. Butte struggled to get their offense going by taking just 20 shots, with half of them coming in the middle period.
The home team scored on one of their five power play chances as Cooper Clouse’s first period goal occurred with the Irish in the sin bin. The Irish squandered their five opportunities to score with Great Falls in the penalty box.
The trio of Ethan Miller, AJ Prioli, and Cooper Clouse contributed six goals and dished out ten assists between the three of them.
Kaden Rhyder (13-5-0-1) played the first forty minutes and is still undefeated (5-0-0-0) when facing Butte this season. He picked up his 13th win by swatting away all 17 shots. Gunnar Bergo also saw action in the net and stopped all three shots. Matthieu Chernauckas made 26 saves but allowed five goals in the loss (3-9-0-0) in 29 minutes on the ice. Backup Blake Drost (31 saves) saw the Americans score six goals on him.
