Hapka and the Americans Stop Three Game Losing Streak with 4-2 Win Over the Sheridan Hawks

Photo credit Michael Noel Photography The #3 Great Falls Americans (23-12-3-2) traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming on Friday for their final regular season weekend series against the #4 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (23-12-2-1). After six meetings, Great Falls and Sheridan have earned the split on each of their three-weekend series. Each team is 3-3-0-0 against each other. On the opening night of the 2024-25 NA3HL season on September 6-7, Great Falls fell 4-3 followed on September 7th with a 3-1 victory at the Great Falls Ice Plex. A month later, both clubs met in Sheridan, Wyoming where Great Falls topped the Hawks, 5-1 on October 4th but Sheridan got revenge and defeated the Americans on October 5th, 4-2. In the fourth and fifth meeting, the Americans hosted the Hawks to end the month of November (29-30), with Great Falls edging Sheridan, 3-2 on November 29 but Sheridan bested Great Falls, 4-2 on November 30th. The Sheridan Hawks, under the direction of head coach JJ Santagata, are led by Josh Serino, who leads the NA3HL with 73 points (37 goals, 36 assists) and Vincent Leaf is third in the league with 65 points (26 goals, 39 assists). Meanwhile, Great Falls is led in scoring and points by Ty O’Bey, who is seventh in the league with 60 points (28 goals, 32 assists). Kaden Rhyder has an 19-8-1 record after 29 contests as the Americans goaltender. He is 17th in the NA3HL with a Goals-Against-Average (GAA) of 2.529. Great Falls Americans forward Chase Hapka scored in the first and second periods and Ty O’Bey chipped in two assists to lead the #4 Great Falls Americans past the #3 Sheridan (WY) Hawks, 4-2 during a frigid Friday evening at the Whitney Rink in the M&M’s Center in Sheridan, Wyoming. The win by the Americans put them (at least temporarily) in third place while Sheridan goes to the fourth spot in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division standings. Great Falls and Sheridan each netted one goal each in the first twenty minutes of action. Great Falls took the early lead on a scoring drive by Chase Hapka. The Fargo, North Dakota standout added his 16th goal with 14:46 remaining with a helper from Aiden Kennedy. Elijah Farris from the Hawks evened the score (1-1) with four minutes remaining as Logan Hume and Vlad Zubriichuk collecting the assists. The first period ended with 29 total shots between these two NA3HL clubs. The visiting Americans broke the tie 12:36 into the second period when Chase Hapka put the puck in the net for the second time as Ty O’Bey and Garren Narvaez added the assists. The home team outshot the Montana team, 20-11 in the period. John Lang off a pass from Ty O’Bey helped Great Falls stretch their lead to 3-1 with seven minutes remaining in the contest. The Hawks pulled to within one goal (3-2) when Sheridan put the biscuit in the basket. The assists went to Charles Stow and Logan Hume. Before the final buzzer sounded, the Americans ensured the road win on a Sebe Perez goal with 37 seconds remaining. Garren Narvaez, the team leader in assists added his second one of the night for a season total of 33. Zac Orwig also was credited with his 30th assist. Great Falls ended with 36 shots with 15 coming in the first period. Sheridan finished with 43. The power play chances, and the penalties were even for both teams. Great Falls and Sheridan each went 1-for-5 on the power play and were each whistled for six minor infractions resulting in 12 minutes spent in the sin bin. Kaden Rhyder is now 4-2-0-0 against the Hawks this season. The netminder for the Americans, who improved to 19-8-1-0 on the season, made 41 saves. John Simon (32 saves) was denied his eleventh win in the net for Sheridan. Simon (10-7-0-0) has two wins and two losses versus the Americans this season. FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Zach Vockler and Dawson Wirth teamed up to score four goals to lead the #2 Badlands (SD) Sabres (23-13-4-2) to a convincing 6-1 home victory over the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (21-15-1-1). The Sabres led the Ice Dogs 3-1 after the first period and then scored three unanswered goals in the third frame to capture their 23rd victory of the season in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday night. Spencer Wilkinson stopped the shutout in the first period with his 15th goal of the season for the visitors. Riley Swanson is now 2-0-0-0 as a member of the Sabres after recording a 3-4-0-1 at the start of the season with the NA3HL’s Rochester Grizzlies. Swanson stopped 21 of the 22 shots by Bozeman. Jack Ryan of the Ice Dogs fell to 5-6-0-0 and is now 1-1-0-0 when facing Badlands. Ryan made 30 saves while allowing six goals.