By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., September 20, 2013 — The Great Falls Americans Junior A hockey team opened up the 2013-14 season with a 4-1 victory over the Bozeman Ice Dogs at the Great Falls Ice Plex on Friday night.
The game was scoreless for the first 15 minutes before the Americans picked up their first goal of the season by Great Falls native Connor Barta at the 4:44 mark of the opening period. Lucas Lomax and Erik Gatson were credited with the assist.
It didn’t take long for the Americans to score again as Max Kaercher’s goal 57 seconds into the second period gave Great Falls a 2-0 advantage. The Americans of coach Jeff Heimel would add another goal as Lucas Lomax would get the first of his two goals on the evening with 6:59 to play as Aaron McInnis set up the third goal of the game. After two periods, the Americans out-shot the Ice Dogs 20-14.
In the final period, Lomax would score his second goal and the last one of the evening for the Americans before Bozeman’s Ryan Erickson put the Ice Dogs on the scoreboard for the first time with 3:04 remaining.
Evan Hauser, the Americans goaltender, stopped 19 of 20 shots while Chance Turner recorded 29 saves for the Ice Dogs. The Americans finished the contest by going 1-for-3 in power play opportunities
The Americans of head coach Jeff Heimel are now 1-0 in league play while the Bozeman club is now 0-1.
NEXT CONTEST: Great Falls will begin the second of four consecutive home appearances next Friday night (Sept. 27th) at 7:30PM against the Glacier Nationals at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Bozeman |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Connor Barta (assist by Lucas Lomax, Erik Gatson), 4:44.
Second Period – 2, Great Falls, Max Kaercher (Donovan Mattfeldt, Dylan Garton), 19:07, (pp). 3, Great Falls, Lomax (Aaron McInnis), 6:59.
Third Period – 4, Great Falls, Lomax (McInnis, Gatson), 12:41. 5, Bozeman, Ryan Erickson (Chase Engdahl), 3:04.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 33, Bozeman 20.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 1-for-3, Bozeman 0-for-5.
Attendance – 658.
Box Score: Bozeman @ Great Falls
| Final | Great Falls Iceplex Fri, Sep 20, 2013 7:30 PM MST |
 Bozeman 1 |
 Great Falls 4 |
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