NOTE: A Special Thanks to Great Falls Americans Facebook for providing the photo.
By Kevin Scott
RAPID CITY, S. Dak., October 3, 2026 —The Great Falls Americans (4-2-0-1) had to settle for a split in their season series against the Badlands (SD) Sabres (4-2-1-0) as they fell 4-2 on the road to their South Dakota opponents on Saturday night in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Great Falls defeated Badlamds. 6-4 on Friday night behind the solid efforts of Xander Troyer (2 goals) and Jace Troyer, who registered one goal and dished out two assists in the road win.
The Americans got on the scoreboard first as St. Louis, Missouri native Cooper Palazzolo needed six games to pick up his first goal with Great Falls. Jordan Antar and Ace McLeslie assisted on the tally that occurred with 17:39 left in the first period. Ten minutes later, the Sabres answered with the first of their two first period scores. Dayton Niedert put the biscuit in the basket for his sixth goal while the Americans were in the sin bin. Oliver Giles and Rhylan Olson earned the assists to even the score, 1-1. Matthew Cordins broke the tie for the home team with four minutes left before the first intermission off a pass from Gavin Compomizzi-Koehler and Jackson Hepper.
Matthew Cordis stretched the lead for Badlands to 3-1 by scoring his second goal of the game in the second period with Great Falls in the penalty box. Dayton Niedert and Rhylan Olson each helpled make the Sabres third goal possible with six minutes remaining in the middle frame. Each team took 27 total shots after two periods of play.
The Americans pulled to within 3-2 with a score by Keifer Lundmark early in the third perod. Austin Gibson and Gordon Jennings took advantage of the power play and got the puck to Lundmark for the lamplighter. The Americans would get no closer as Rhylan Olson, who assisted on two goals in the first and second periods, scored on a power play with 13 minutes left and the Sabres defense held up and prevented the Americans from scoring the rest of the way to earn the weekend split. Justin Reams was the assist maker.
The Americans outshot the Sabres in the first and third periods to finish their South Dakota trip with 39 shots-on-goal. Badlands attempted just six third perod shots to finish with 33 shots.
The difference in the game was when the Sabres capitalized on three of their (seven) power play oppportunities with the Americans down a man (penalty). Great Falls went 1-for-7 with Keifer Lundmark’s third period score coming with Badlands in the penalty box.
Parker Kelly (2-2-0-0) accumulated his second win of the season for Badlands after finishing the 2025-26 season with an 8-3-1-0 record by gathering 37 saves in his weekend split against Great Falls. Meanwhile, Kaleb Wood (0-1-0-0) played 59 minutes and stopped 28 of 32 shots in his debut for the Montana NA3HL squad.
NOTE: Great Falls fell to third place in the Frontier Division after their setback and the Helena Bighorns (8-5 win against Gillette) and the Bozeman Ice Dogs (2-1 win over Sheridan) victories on Saturday night.
NEXT CONTEST: After two weeks on the road, Great Falls will play a home-and-away series againtst the Butte Irish this week. Great Falls will travel to Butte, Montana and face the Irish inside the Butte Community Ice Center on Friday, October 9th starting at 7:30PM (MST). Great Falls will return to the friendly confines of the Great Falls Ice Plex on Saturday, October 10th for their third meeting of the season with the puck dropping at 7:05PM (MST). Both games can be seen on the NA3HL’s official streaming service, NATV.
For complete schedules/results, promotions, team stats, rosters and much more information, please go to our official website: www.greatfallsamericans.com