The #3 Great Falls Americans (15-6-1-0) hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as we get ready to resume the NA3HL regular season schedule before our winter break in late December.
After Saturday’s home date with the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks, we have road games against the Bozeman Ice Dogs (Dec. 6) and Helena Bighorns (Dec. 7) before the 2024 NA3HL Showcase Tournament takes place for all teams in the NA3HL from December 15-17 from the NSC Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. The Showcase schedule is expected to be released on Wednesday, December 4th.
Friday’s opponent was the #2 Sheridan Hawks (15-6-2-0), currently four points out of first place over the #1 Helena Bighorns (19-2-0-0). Helena’s only two losses are from the Americans.
Great Falls and Sheridan have each played a two-game series in Great Falls and in Sheridan, Wyoming during September and October with each team claiming two victories apiece. In the first meeting in Great Falls on September 6th, the Hawks topped the Americans, 4-3 but Great Falls bounced back for a 3-1 win the following evening. Great Falls traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming for a pair of Frontier Division contests on October 4-5, 2024. The Americans scored five goals and limited Sheridan to one in a 5-1 win on October 4th and then Sheridan downed the Montana squad, 4-2 on October 5th.
After 21 games, Great Falls is led by Ty O’Bey, from Ashland, Wisconsin, who leads the team in goals scored (17) and total points (36). Garren Narvaez, a product of Phoenix, Arizona, is the team leader in assists with 24. Coach JJ Santagata’s Sheridan squad has received 26 goals and 46 points from Josh Serino, from Barrow, Alaska. First-year forward, Vincent Leaf, from Des Moines, Iowa is the Hawks top-assist leader with 25.
Would the home team move to 3-2 against the Hawks or would the Hawks get their third victory in five head-to-head meetings with Great Falls?
The #3 Great Falls Americans topped the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks, 3-2 on Friday night to record their 12th win inside the Great Falls Ice Plex this season. Great Falls scored two of their three goals in the second period. Garren Narvaez, Masen Kerr, and Aiden Kennedy scored for the Americans while Zac Orwig had two assists, and goaltender Kaden Rhyder won his 13th game by redirecting 31 shots.
Gill’s Point S Tire and Auto was Friday’s sponsor of the intermission “Tricycle Races.”
The first twenty minutes ended in a 1-1 tie. Sheridan defenseman Elijah White got the scoring going first. The Alabama native scored his fifth goal 2:36 into the contest with Great Falls in the penalty box. Josh Serino received his 20th assist and Kiefer Dunham gathered his sixth assist for the early lead. Before the first intermission, the Americans tied the contest (1-1) with 4:58 on the clock. Garren Narvaez tacked on his sixth scoring drive as Zac Orwig and Fisher Hannesson created the assists for the first score for the host team. The Americans held a 21-11 shots-on-goal advantage.
The Montana squad outscored their Wyoming counterparts, 2-1 in the middle frame. Aiden Kennedy and Masen Kerr accounted for both goals for Great Falls. Ty O’Bey and John Lang accrued the assists on Kennedy’s power play score. Masen Kerr scored his first tally of the season off a pass from Garren Narvaez and Zac Orwig. Gavin Elliott recorded his fourth score of the year for the Hawks off the stick of Derrek Laite and Elijah White.
Each team produced ten shots apiece in the third but neither team up lit up the lamp.
Great Falls took 42 of their 52 total shots during the first two periods. Sheridan finished the night with 33.
The Americans committed two minor penalties in the first period and did not have any during the second and third periods. The Hawks had six minor penalties that resulted in twelve minutes in the sin bin.
Kaden Rhyder (13-5-0-0) continues to pile up the wins for Great Falls in the net. The Pennsylvania goaltender allowed one goal in each of the two periods to end the night with 31 saves. He is 3-2-0-0 against the Hawks this season with three more meetings in the regular season. Sheridan’s TJ Wonnacott dropped to 4-2-2-0 but not before providing 49 saves.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Caden Fenstein, Trey Pareja, Kade Pareja, Austin Uecker, and Clint Isakson all scored to hand the #1 Helena Bighorns (19-2-0-0) another win by defeating the #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (9-13-1-0), 5-2 in Gillette, Wyoming on Friday night. Chase Hapka and Beau Delich put the puck in the net in the second period for the Wild. Tyler Miller won his seventh game (7-2-0-0) of the season by acquiring 26 saves for Helena. Tate Cothern (Gillette) fell for the sixth time this season (4-6-0-0) by swatting away 34 shots.
Logan Nichols scored two goals in the first period for the winless #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-22-1-0) but the #6 Butte Irish (10-11-1-0) rallied to crush the Quake, 10-3 Butte’s Loghan Weber scored two of his three goals in the third period while teammates Easton Langemo and Bobby Anselmo each netted two goals apiece. The Irish made six of their goals in the middle stanza. Manny Pantow (Butte), who ended the game with 33 saves, improved to 4-5-0-0 on the season. Matthew Neeser (0-12-0-0) had another difficult night for the Quake by getting 66 saves in sixty minutes.
The #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs (11-8-1-1) traded spots with the # 5 Badlands (SD) Sabres (10-9-2-2) in the NA3HL Frontier Division standings by earning a hard fought 4-3 win in a shootout at Haynes Pavilion in Bozeman, Montana on Friday evening. Six different scorers lit up the lamp in regulation including Bozeman’s Baron Masopust, Andrew Kaunas, and Spencer Wilkinson and Badlands Sabres players Charlie Lorbiecki, Patrick Gosselin, and Thayne Coston. After a scoreless five-minute overtime, the game went into a shootout. Bozeman’s Dan Upton was the only player from either squad to score in the shootout. Thanks to Dan Upton’s shootout goal, Bozeman netminder Brett DeVincent won his seventh game in 11 games (7-4-0-0) by getting 37 saves. Lochlin Jackson (30 saves) of the Sabres fell for the second time (4-2-1-2)in a shootout this season.
