The #4 Great Falls Americans with a record of 23-14-4-2 have faced the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (24-15-1-1) seven times and have four victories (4-2-0-1).
Two weeks ago, the Ice Dogs and the Americans came together for a game in Bozeman, Montana on February 2nd. The home team led 5-2 after the first two periods as Tyler Klingbeil accumulated two scoring drives and John Lang added two goals for Great Falls. Great Falls’ offense took advantage of Bozeman in the third and outscored them 4-0 to take a 6-5 lead but with 18 seconds remaining, Bozeman’s Reid Wilkinson evened the score to send it to an overtime, where neither team was able to put the puck in the net. Spencer Wilkinson of Bozeman was the only player from either team to score against the opposing goaltender and the Ice Dogs escaped with a 7-6 win in the shootout. Brett DeVincent picked up the win with his 38 saves and Great Falls’ Kale Witt made 20 saves.
Would Great Falls get a fifth win against their Montana rival?
The Bozeman Ice Dogs took advantage of a three-goal effort in the third period to down the visiting Great Falls Americans, 5-3 on Saturday at Haynes Pavilion. Both teams were even at 2-2 prior to the third period when Bozeman’s Brodie Shepardson netted his second goal and teammates Lex Steckelberg and Reid Wilkinson each produced one goal. Sebe Perez, Garren Narvaez and Blayne Jusczak all scored for the Americans.
Before the first intermission, Bozeman, and Great Falls each put the biscuit in the basket. Seth Hanson, a native of Billings, Montana, scored first for the host team. TJ Kelsey and Sam Trufant each assisted on the score that came with 4:17 left. Great Falls scored the game-tying goal with 15 seconds left when Sebe Perez scored for the sixth time this season. John Lang and Matt Beazley provided the assists. A total of 33 shots were taken between these two clubs.
The score remained tied but both squads each produced a goal during the middle period. Bodie Shepardson, who played the previous two seasons with the Ice Dogs, saw his first action this season and secured his first goal of the year five minutes into the period with assistance from Reid Wilkinson and Spencer Wilkinson while Great Falls was down a man (penalty). The lead lasted 41 seconds until Americans standout Garren Narvaez tacked on his 14th goal that was set up by Zac Orwig and Sebe Perez.
Bodie Shepardson scored his second goal while Reid Wilkinson and Lex Steckelberg each added one as the Ice Dogs outscored the Americans 3-1 in the final frame. Great Falls and Bozeman scored one goal apiece during the final 36 seconds. Bodie Shepardson added his second goal of the season with 36 seconds left in an empty net as earlier the Americans pulled goaltender Kaden Rhyder in favor of adding another offensive skater and Blayne Jusczak netted the final goal for either squad with eight seconds to go but the Americans fell short. Sam Trufant, TJ Kelsey and Andrew Kaunas earned the third period assists while Jase Troyer and EJ Sanchez gathered the assists on Jusczak’s goal for the visiting team.
The Ice Dogs outshot the Americans 27-9 over the final two periods to finish with 42. Great Falls had 18 of their 37 in the first stanza.
The game was light on penalties as both teams combined for four minor infractions before the third period.
Brett DeVincent was awarded his 15th win this season for Bozeman. He stopped 24 of 27 shots in 60 minutes on the ice to improve to 15-8-0-0. Great Falls’ Kaden Rhyder (19-10-2-0) tallied 37 saves as he was denied his 20th win.
As the postseason nears, the #4 Great Falls (23-14-4-2, 52 pts.) narrowly leads the #5 Bozeman Ice Dogs (24-15-1-1, 50 pts.) in the Frontier Division standings in the NA3HL. The top four after the season concludes on March 8 will be playoff bound. Helena has already clinched a spot with the #2 Sheridan (WY( Hawks (25-13-2-1, 53 pts.) and the #3 Badlands (SD) Sabres (23-13-4-3, 53 pts.) close to clinching.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: Helena netminder Branson Appelman stopped all 22 shots as the #1 Helena Bighorns (35-3-1-1) blanked the #6 Butte Irish (17-22-1-3), 3-0 on Saturday evening at the Butte Community Ice Center. All the scoring was done after the first period with Hunter Coulombe, Owen Gruener, and Ty Schell each lighting up the lamp for the Bighorns. Trey Pareja also had two assists. Tim Nanson fell to 8-9-1-0 on the season for Butte by swatting away 55 shots in the loss.
The #2 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (25-13-2-1) earned the weekend split on the road against the #7 Gillette (WY) Wild (18-24-1-0) by downing the Wild 5-3 in Gillette, Wyoming on Saturday. On Friday, Gillette won 4-2 over the Hawks. Five Hawks players saw the lamp light up including Vincent Leaf, Elijah White, Daniel Shelden, Vlad Zubriichuk, and Ernest Allen. Kylo Stinson, Dante Hunziker, and Dylan Peterson added the goals for the host team. John Simon was the winning netminder for the Hawks as he redirected 38 shots to improve to 11-7-0-0. Austin Trieber (5-8-0-0) of Gillette made 38 saves in his eighth loss of the season.
The #2 Badlands (SD) Sabres (23-13-4-3) and the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Hawks (1-39-1-0) are idle this weekend and will return to action next week.
