The Great Falls Americans (0-3) enter the second weekend of competition for the 2025 North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) hoping for their first victory.
Last weekend (September 5-6), they hosted the Helena Bighorns on Friday, falling 8-3, and then attempted a comeback that fell short (3-2) against the Bozeman Ice Dogs on Saturday at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
Great Falls played host to the Badlands Sabres (3-0) tonight, a team based out of Rapid City, South Dakota, who won both of their opening weekend contests inside South Dakota’s Roosevelt Park Ice Arena, winning 3-2 and 4-2 against the Sheridan (WY) Hawks.
Wyatt Pink and Patrick Gosselin each scored goals in the first and third periods to pace the Badlands (SD) Sabres to a 2-0 shutout victory over the Great Falls Americans during Friday’s NA3HL junior hockey action at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
Badlands forward Wyatt Pink gave the Sabres the early 1-0 advantage 6:46 into the first period. The Iowa native scored his second tally of the season off the stick of teammates Maddox Harn (third assist) and Peyton Kostad (first assist). The Americans took just nine shots and could not find a way to get the puck in the net during the first twenty minutes. The visitors accumulated 15 shots with one successful goal scored.
A total of 24 shots were taken between the Americans and Sabres in the second period. Neither team was able to capitalize on any lamplighters during the 20-minute session.
Patrick Gosselin scored the lone goal for the South Dakota squad in the third frame. The forward from New Jersey, who is one of eleven returners from last season, scored his first goal of the season with 15:23 remaining. Maddox Harn picked up his second assist (fourth overall), and Rhylan Olson added his second assist in three games.
Great Falls created 14 shots in the second and third frames to finish with 37 shots-on-goal. Meanwhile, Badlands made 25 shots before the second intermission to end their first game in Great Falls with 33.
Nine penalties were issued by the on-ice officials between both Frontier Division opponents, with no successful power play opportunities awarded.
Badlands netminder Jackson Roethler, who returned from last season’s squad, won his third game to move to 3-0-0-0 for head coach Brooks Mitzel’s squad. The Kasson, Minnesota, standout had an impressive outing by stopping all 37 shots by Great Falls.
Kaden Rhyder (0-1-0-0) was back in the net for the Great Falls Americans for his third season with the team. The Pennsylvania goaltender went 24-13-2-0 in 40 games (including the playoffs) during the 2024-25 season, where he finished with a 0.930 save percentage. He got the start tonight after joining the team this week. He took his first loss by producing 26 saves.
