The Great Falls Americans (11-7-1-1) have played six of their seven Frontier Division opponents after the first three months of the 2025-26 North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) season, with just one team they haven’t faced until Friday. Great Falls traveled to Butte, Montana, for a single contest against the Butte Irish (6-12-0-0).
Great Falls moved up to third place after the Bozeman Ice Dogs fell on Friday, and have won five of their last six games since October 24th, with victories over their three Wyoming opponents (Sheridan Hawks, Yellowstone Quake, and Gillette Wild). Great Falls is led in scoring this season by the duo of Cooper Clouse and Ethan Miller with 12 goals apiece. Clouse also had 19 assists after 20 contests.
Butte, who has six victories in 17 games, has been led by Easton Langemo (17 goals, 11 assists) and Jack Whitelaw also earning 11 assists for head coach Marc Brodeur’s squad. The Irish have two victories in their past six games.
The Great Falls Americans moved up to third place in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division by posting a 7-3 win over the Butte Irish during Friday’s road game at the Butte Community Ice Center in Butte, Montana. The Americans led 6-2 after two periods as Ethan Miller had a hat trick (3 goals and 1 assist), Reid Lezubski scored two goals before the second intermission, and Cooper Clouse chipped in a goal and dished out three assists in the Americans’ eleventh win of the year.
Loghan Weber scored the first of his two goals of the game in the first stanza for the Irish as they took the early 1-0 lead 4:44 into the game with a helper from Zach Bucholt. Great Falls’s offense tacked on two goals before the first intermission as Reid Lezubski and Ethan Miller each buried the puck in the net. Ethan Miller, Reid Lezubski, and Cooper Clouse provided the assists.
In the middle period, the visiting team scored four goals during the first 15 minutes with four different players adding goals to their resume, including Reid Lezubski, Ethan Miller, EJ Sanchez, and Cooper Clouse. Clouse and Lezubski also assisted on two of the scoring plays for Great Falls. Colton Bacon, Gavin Denis, and Gordon Jennings helped the puck in the net. Before the period concluded, Tyler Jones cut Butte’s deficit to 6-2 with his unassisted tally. Great Falls led in the shots-on-goal category, 31-28, through two periods.
Loghan Weber, who scored his seventh goal of the season in the first frame, scored midway through the third off the stick of Jack Whitelaw, but that was as close as the Irish would get on the scoreboard. A few minutes later, Ethan Miller lit up the lamp for the final scoring drive of the night.
Great Falls finished with one more shot (42-41) than the host team. Butte outshot the Americans, 29-23, after the first period.
All three (minor) penalties were called before the second intermission, but there was no successful power play goals scored by either opponent.
Kaden Rhyder improved his record to 5-3-0-1 by allowing one goal in each period to end his night with 38 saves. Butte’s Zander Harp played 52 minutes before being replaced by backup goalie Billy Lavelle. Zander was credited with his seventh loss (3-7-0-0). Lavelle stopped all five shots while he was on the ice.
By Kevin Scott: November 14, 2025 – Butte, Mt
