The #3 Great Falls Americans (21-10-2-0) and the #6 Butte Irish (15-16-1-1) met for the fifth time this season on Saturday in Butte, Montana with the Americans winning their season series, 3-1 so far with three more meetings left to play during the 2024-25 NA3HL regular season.
During the four meeting in which the Americans hosted the Irish in three of those contests, Great Falls has outscored them, 23-7 including a 7-0 shutout on New Year’s Eve in Great Falls.
Both rivals are also set to play on January 24 and March 7 in Butte (7:30PM start times) and will close out the regular season with a March 8th date in Great Falls (7:05PM start time).
On Friday (January 10th), the Americans and the Irish started the weekend needing extra time to get by their Frontier Division opponents.
Great Falls let their 3-1 lead slip away in the third period as the #1 Helena Bighorns capitalized on some mistakes by Great Falls to even the game at the end of regulation and sent the contest to overtime where the Bighorns scored the winning goal with 16 seconds were left for the 5-4 win.
Butte trailed 4-1 after two periods to the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs but the Irish outscored Bozeman 4-1 in the tier frame to send it into overtime where both teams failed to score. In the shootout, only one player (Baron Masopust) for Bozeman scored against the Butte goaltender. Bozeman claimed a 6-5 win.
The Great Falls Americans offense led in scoring by EJ Sanchez, John Lang, Masen Kerr, and Cooper Clouse turned away the Butte Irish, 4-2 during Saturday’s NA3HL junior hockey action at the Butte Community Ice Center.
Both teams combined for 18 shots and no power play opportunities as a scoreless tie occurred after the first stanza.
Great Falls native EJ Sanchez recorded his second goal as a member of the Americans during the second period. The goal by Sanchez came three minutes into the period with assists going to Chase Hapka and Masen Kerr to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. John Lang scored his twelfth goal with 63 seconds to go to increase the Americans advantage (2-0). Aiden Kennedy and Cooper Clouse were each credited with one assist each while Great Falls was on the power play. The Americans attempted twice (14-7) as many shots as Butte.
It took Butte almost 42 minutes of game time before they put in their first lamplighter. Irish forward Bobby Anselmo netted his eleventh goal to cut the lead in half. Andrew Browe added his 38th assist and teammate Sebaquien Chlud gathered his third assist for the host team. Matt Beazley and Gavin Denis each added a helper on Masen Kerr’s goal later in the period to give Great Falls a two-goal lead (3-1). Nathaniel Vocke pulled the Irish to within a goal (3-2) with his first goal as a member of the Irish with six minutes left in regulation with assistance from Keegan Adams and Loghan Weber. Cooper Clouse put the biscuit in the basket for the third time this year with 1:21 left to ensure the Americans 21st overall victory and seventh on the road.
Great Falls held a 39-27 advantage in the shots-on-goal category. The Americans combined for 29 shots after the first twenty minutes.
The Americans (1-for-5 on the power play) had just two minor penalties that occurred in the third period. Butte was whistled for seven penalties that resulted in 22 minutes spent off the ice. The home team scored one goal while the Americans were down a man (penalty).
The winning netminder was Kaden Rhyder, who now has 17 victories (17-6-1-0), allowed two third period scoring drives while producing 25 saves. Nicholas Ulyanov, a Beaverton, Oregon native, is still searching for his first victory after his second game with Butte. Ulyanov (0-1-0-1) made 35 saves after making his season debut against the Bozeman Ice Dogs on Friday where Butte fell 6-5 in a shootout.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: For the second straight night, the #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (22-9-2-0) held the #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (13-19-1-0) to just four goals as they picked up a 6-4 decision over their Wyoming opponents. Josh Serino scored two goals and added a helper to earn the weekend sweep for the Hawks. Brady Johnson of the Wild had a busy night scoring all four goals for the visitors in the loss. TJ Wonnacott improved to (9-2-2-0) with 29 saves for Sheridan. Austin Trieber fell for the sixth time in nine games (3-6-0-0) for the Wild. He amassed 33 saves.
Dawson Wirth, Rylan Salo, and Rhylan Olson combined for six of the ten goals for the #4 Badlands (SD) Sabres (17-13-3-2) in their 10-0 dominating win over the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (1-33-1-0) in Cody, Wyoming on Saturday. In the Sabres sweep, they outshot the Quake, 77-15. Lochlin Jackson got the start in the net on Saturday for Badlands. Jackson is 6-4-2-2 on the season as he redirected all 15 shots by the Quake. Quake netminders Nate Whitson and Matthew Neeser combined for 67 saves but Neeser took the loss (0-16-0-0).
The #1 Helena Bighorns (26-3-1-1) scored twice in the third period to escape with a 3-2 victory at home against the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (16-13-1-1) on Saturday inside Steed Arena. Each team added one goal before the second intermission and then Helena’s Kade Pareja and Jason Hammett racked up two third period goals. Helena led 3-1 until the final 12 seconds when Bozeman’s Baron Masopust put the puck between the pipes, but the rally came too late. Tyler Miller (9-2-1-0) accumulated 35 saves for the Bighorns. Brett DeVincent (33 saves) of the Ice Dogs fell to 9-7-0-0 overall this season.
