By Lee Vernoy, Tribune Sports Writer
March 16, 2019
BOZEMAN – There will be a Game 3 Sunday night at the IcePlex, after the Bozeman Icedogs held off the Great Falls Americans 5-3 in Game 2 of the best-of-three NA3HL Frontier Division semifinals Saturday night at Haynes Pavillion.
The series, now even at a game apiece, shifts back to the IcePlex on Gore Hill for the third and deciding game Sunday night at 7:30.
The Icedogs tallied four unanswered goals in the second period to take a 4-1 lead, adding a fifth goal early in the third before holding off an Americans’ comeback attempt.
Cody Dearing, Payton McSherry and George Nuutinen each scored for Great Falls, while Bozeman’s goals came from Gage Blatter, Adam Franklin, Duncan McGarrah, Dominic Canic and Rhys Phelps.
Great Falls goalie Drew Scites was tagged with the loss, despite only playing the final 12:03 of the second stanza in relief of starter Viktor Wennberg. Scites saved three of the four shots he saw.
The winner of Sunday’s match will take on the Helena Bighorns for the best-of-three Frontier Division championship and an automatic berth in the NA3HL Fraser Cup Tournament.
Helena got past the Missoula Junior Bruins 6-5 in the third and final game of that semifinal Saturday night at the Helena Ice Arena.
Story Courtesy: Great Falls Tribune: Icedogs score four in second to force Game 3 with Americans (March 16, 2019)