By Kevin Scott
CODY, Wyo., February 15, 2014 — Dylan Garton had one of his better games of the season as he scored two goals and assisted on three scoring drives in the Americans 7-4 win over the Yellowstone Quake on Saturday night in front of 285 fans at the Victor J. Riley Arena. The forward from Great Falls, MT now has 16 goals and 26 assists in 43 games. Great Falls swept the two game series against the Quake while earning their 32nd victory of the season.
A total of five goals were scored between these two AWHL teams in the opening period with Yellowstone taking a 3-2 advantage as the period ended. The Americans recorded a short-handed score by Garton from the stick of Steven Butts during the first 2:23 of the contest. TJay Lozier of the Quake was able to take advantage of a power play opportunity eighty second later to tie the contest (1-1). James Pyle tacked on the assist and then scored the go-ahead points for the Cody, Wyoming club four seconds after Lozier’s score on an unassisted play. Paul Sartuche rallied the Americans and the game was tied for the second time with Dylan Garton and Johnathan Carpenter picking up the assists. Sawyer Scanlan broke the tie (3-2) for the host team midway through the period on a pass from Jimmy Tich and Mike McCullen.
The second period belonged to Great Falls by scoring three of the four total goals scored converting two power play scoring opportunities. After Reed Kaiser increased the Yellowstone lead to 4-2, Lucas Lomax cut the deficit to one. Connor Barta and Erik Gatson came through for the Americans with the assists at the 14:24 mark of the middle period. Dylan Garton and Connor Barta set up the game-tying goal for Johnathan Carpenter with three minutes left on the clock. Cody Page made sure the Americans led before they headed to the locker room for the second intermission and his power play goal gave the Americans a 5-4 lead at the end of the period.
Steven Butts scored seven minutes into the final period to power the Americans to a two goal lead (6-4) with help from Austin Nottke and Donovan Mattfeldt. His goal was his first since the Americans traded for him back on January 29th from the NAHL’s Kenai River (Alaska) Brown Bears. Garton added an empty net goal from a feed by Erik Gatson to end the game.
Both of the Great Falls goalies saw action tonight with Erik Powell leading the way with 31 saves in 56 minutes of action while Evan Hauser finished with four. Meanwhile, Rocco Yapello swatted away 31 shots for Yellowstone. Both teams combined for 77 shots on goal with the Americans accounting for 38 of them.
NEXT CONTEST: The Americans have only one game next week including a tilt with the Bozeman Ice Dogs from Haynes Pavilion in Bozeman, MT on Saturday, February 22nd with action beginning at 7:30 p.m.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Yellowstone | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Dylan Garton (short-handed) (Steven Butts), 2:23. 2, Yellowstone, TJay Lozier (power play) (James Pyle), 3:43. 3, Yellowstone, James Pyle (unassisted), 3:47. 4, Great Falls, Paul Sartuche (Dylan Garton, Johnathan Carpenter), 4:35. 5, Yellowstone, Sawyer Scanlan (power play) (Jimmy Tich, Mike McCullen), 11:38.
Second Period – 6, Yellowstone, Reed Kaiser (Ryan Garvey), 2:34. 7, Great Falls, Lucas Lomax (power play) (Connor Barta, Erik Gatson), 14:24. 8, Great Falls, Johnathan Carpenter (Dylan Garton, Connor Barta), 16:49. 9, Great Falls, Cody Page (power play) (Dylan Garton, Brady Christiaens), 19:05.
Third Period – 10, Great Falls, Steven Butts (Austin Nottke, Donovan Mattfeldt), 7:11. 11, Great Falls, Dylan Garton (empty net) (Erik Gatson), 19:05.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 38, Yellowstone 39.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 2-for-6, Yellowstone 2-for-4.
Attendance – 285
Box Score: Great Falls @ Yellowstone
| Final | Victor J Riley Sat, Feb 15, 2014 7:30 PM MST |
 Great Falls 7 |
 Yellowstone 4 |
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