The Yellowstone (WY) Quake (1-30-1-0), the Americans opponent this weekend, have struggled to produce any wins this season. They have lost 31 of their 32 games against their Frontier Division foes this season. The Quake’s lone victory occurred at the 2024 NA3HL Showcase Tournament in Blaine, Minnesota (December 15-17) against the NA3HL Selects team where they topped them, 8-3.
Great Falls has 19 wins, ten regulation losses, and one overtime setback against the other seven Frontier Division squads. The Americans also went 2-1 versus their opponents at the NA3HL Showcase where they defeated the Texas RoadRunners and the New Hampshire Jr. Mountain Kings 2-1 in both games but fell 2-1 to the New Mexico Jr. Wolves to close out the tournament.
On Friday, the Great Falls Americans, third in the eight-team NA3HL Frontier Division, visited Cody, Wyoming for a two-game road series against the #8 Yellowstone Quake, who they have dominated in their October series in Great Falls.
Both squads met on the ice on October 18th at the Great Falls Ice Plex. The Americans scored half of their 12 goals in the first stanza. Blake Komrofske scored two goals along with two assists. Ty O’Bey, Blayne Jusczak, Aiden Kennedy, and Zac Orwig combined for four goals and eight assists. Goaltender Kaden Rhyder had an easy night in the net by deflecting all seven shots. Yellowstone netminder Nate Whitson made 44 saves in the Quake’s loss.
The following night, Zac Orwig scored six points in the October 19th game against the Wyoming club. The Hopkins, Minnesota forward scored a hat trick (three goals) while guiding the Americans to a convincing 11-1 victory. Aiden and Easton Kennedy scored two goals and two assists apiece. Patrick Forsythe got the start in goal and stopped 18 of the 19 shots sent by the Quake. Macen Heisler, who appeared in seven contests with the Americans this season before being traded to Yellowstone, scored his first goal of the season as a member of the Quake’s roster in the second period. Matthew Neeser swatted away 51 shots.
Ty O’Bey (23 goals, 44 points) and Garren Narvaez (29 assists) lead the Americans offense through the first four months of the 2024-25 NA3HL junior hockey season.
Yellowstone’s Max Goulden and Jordan Murray currently lead their team with nine goals each and teammate Wesley Amos (14 assists) lead head coach Luke Fry’s squad.
The #3 Great Falls Americans scored seven goals during the first two periods to down the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake, 9-3 for their third straight victory over the Quake on Friday evening at Riley Arena in Cody, Wyoming. Ty O’Bey scored two first periods goals and one third period score for a hat trick to lead the Americans. Jordan Murray scored all three goals for the Quake.
Ty O’Bey opened the scoring for Great Falls with two successful scoring opportunities in the first frame. O’Bey scored twice during the first five minutes of the contest. Cal Laggis and John Lang provided assists on both scores. Americans forward John Lang provided the third goal with 68 seconds left on the clock. Ty O’Bey and Garrett Driscoll each assisted for the 3-0 lead. Yellowstone would not be shutout as Jordan Murray lit up the lamp with an assist going to Sam Goulden with 41 seconds to cut the Quake’s deficit to 3-1. Great Falls controlled the puck for most of the period racking up 25 shots while allowing nine shots by Yellowstone’s offense.
The Americans took a 7-2 lead as Zac Orwig, Cooper Clouse, Garren Narvaez and Aiden Kennedy each tacked on a goal for the visiting team during the middle period. Chase Hapka assisted on two of the four goals while Garren Narvaez, Cal Laggis, Zac Orwig, Jurzy Allard and Cooper Clouse accumulated the assists for the Americans scoring drives. Yellowstone forward Jordan Murray tossed in his second goal of the night off the stick of Tucker Sarkisian late in the period. Four of the five total goals came during the final six minutes. After two periods, 49-16 was the difference in shots attempted with Great Falls outshooting Yellowstone, 24-7 in the second period.
Wesley Amos and Max Goulden needed 33 seconds into the third frame to get the puck to Jordan Murray for his third score of the contest. The 7-3 deficit lasted 32 seconds when Aiden Kennedy scored his 16th goal that was set up by Cooper Clouse and Chase Hapka. Ty O’Bey tallied his third goal (hat trick) with 5:16 remaining to close out the scoring for both NA3HL squads. Cal Laggis accrued his fourth assist of the night and John Lang acquired his third assist.
Great Falls erupted for 75 shots-on-goal including 26 in the final period. Yellowstone compiled 10 of their 26 in the third.
The third meeting of the season between Great Falls and Yellowstone saw seven minor infractions that resulted in 14 minutes of penalty time. Each squad scored on one of their power play chances.
In addition to Ty O’Bey’s three goals, the Americans also had a productive night by Aiden Kennedy (2 goals), Cal Laggis (4 assists) and Chase Hapka and John Lang contributed three assists each in the victory. Jordan Murray was the lone contributor for Yellowstone with three lamplighters.
Karanveer Kooner played in his third game (23 saves) and picked up his first win for the Americans. The Calgary, Alberta native is now 1-1-0-0 after a 2-1 setback against the New Mexico Ice Wolves on December 17th to conclude the NA3HL Showcase Tournament in Minnesota. Wisconsin netminder Matthew Neeser is now 0-3-0-0 versus Great Falls this season. Neeser recorded 66 saves but fell for the fifteenth time (0-15-0-0) this season.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: The Helena Bighorns (24-3-1-0), the top team in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division, held a 5-1 lead after forty minutes despite a failed comeback attempt by the #4 Badlands (SD) Sabres (14-13-3-2) in the third frame to hang on for a 5-4 win inside Helena’ Steed Arena and picked up 24th victory in 28 games played. Helena’s Chase Berg (2 goals, 1 assist) and Jason Hammett (1 goal, 2 assists) carried the Bighorns to another victory. Four different Sabre players scored including Matthew Cordis, Charlie Lorbiecki, Laurence Lundberg, and Carter Kilen. Branson Appelman (3-1-0-0) finished with 28 saves in his first game against the Sabres. Badlands goalie Lochlin Jackson saw his record go to 5-4-2-2 by recording 36 saves.
The #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (15-11-1-1) never trailed the #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (12-17-1-0) during Friday’s NA3HL action and ended up with their 15th win of the season by tripping up the Wild, 6-3. Six different players (Spencer Wilkinson, Baron Masopust, Barrett Becker, Andrew Kaunas, Reid Wilkison, and Devin Bruns) added to their season scoring totals for the Ice Dogs. Max Arlt scored one goal in the first and third periods to lead the Wild. Both teams took 37 shots-on-goal. A 34-save performance gave Brett DeVincent of Bozeman his tenth win (10-5-0-0). Austin Trieber (3-5-0-0) and backup Wylen Cambensy both saw action in the net for Gillette and combined for 31 saves.
NOTE: Due to transportation issues with the Butte Irish bus and the road conditions, the game between the #6 Butte Irish (14-15-1-0) and the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (20-8-2-0) had a two-hour delay did not start until 9:35PM (MST). The delay affected the Butte Irish as they found themselves on the losing end of a 12-3 setback to the Sheridan (WY) Hawks on Friday night. Vincent Leaf of the Hawks was the “Star of the Game,” and he amassed four goals and dished out two assists while teammates Josh Serino (1 goal, 5 assists) and Zach Longnecker (1 goal, 4 assists) each had a solid game. The host team (Sheridan) outshot Butte, 62-25. Loghan Weber paced the Irish with one goal and two assists in the loss. Ty Wonnacott made 22 saves to improve to 7-2-2-0 for Sheridan. Wonnacott’s counterpart, Tim Nanson (7-7-1-0) got the start for the visiting Montana squad and secured 26 saves. Manny Pantow relieved Nanson early in the game and ended the game with 24 saves in 30 minutes of action.
