By Kevin Scott
HAVRE, Mont., February 6, 2015 — The last time the Great Falls Americans (29-8-2) won was back on January 16th when they defeated the Glacier Nationals (9-26-5) 7-2 in Havre, Montana.
Since then, Great Falls has tried to get back to their winning ways but Helena, Gillette, Billings and Glacier have made that task difficult for the Americans who are trying to stop a five game losing streak heading into tonight’s contest in Havre.
After leading by five goals after two periods, the Great Falls Americans rolled to a win over the Glacier Nationals 7-0 for their 29th win in 39 games on Friday night at the Havre Ice Dome. Great Falls won for the first time since the middle of January.
It took nearly seventeen minutes for the first score of the game in the opening period with these two rivals. Zack Mese dished the puck to Wade Wylie for the first score of the night to give the Americans the 1-0 lead. Blake Miller was able to capitalize on the Americans second goal forty one seconds later with the assists coming from Adam Apangalook and Malachi Bushey. The first place Americans took a two-goal lead after the opening twenty minutes. The visitors from Great Falls registered 14 shots on goal compared to just seven for the Nationals. Neither team picked up any penalties during this stretch.
The Americans, under the direction of coach Jeff Heimel, received three more goals in the middle period. Georgy Ostapchuk, Lucas Lomax, and Cody Page each netted one goal apiece. After Ostapchuk’s unassisted goal in the first 75 seconds, Cody Page connected with Lucas Lomax for the successful power play score at the midpoint of the stanza. Cody Page would find the back of the net before the second intermission. Brendan Jester and Lucas Lomax added the assists on that play. Great Falls limited Glacier’s shot attempts to just 12 after two periods of play (34-12).
The Glacier defense could not find a way to stop the Americans offensive attack during the final period. Brendan Jester converted the Americans second power play opportunity with a quick score early on. Cody Page and Lucas Lomax each added their second assists adding to their season total of 12 and 15 assists, respectively. Erik Gatson gave the Americans a convincing 7-0 advantage with help from Connor Barta and Lucas Stover with 18:02 remaining in the NA3HL contest.
Brendan Jester and Lucas Lomax’s goals in the final two periods occurred during power plays and they finished 2-for-3 while Glacier went 0-for-1.
Great Falls had just two penalties for four minutes of penalty time while Glacier incurred one minor and one major penalty in the second period for 27 minutes.
Jordan Moran picked up his first win in two starts for Great Falls as he swatted away all 12 shots by the Glacier offense. In the loss, Ryan Lund ended his night with 29 saves for the host team.
NEXT CONTEST: The Americans will play host to Billings (7:30PM start) on Saturday, February 7th and Helena in an afternoon game beginning at 4:00PM on Sunday, February 8th.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Glacier | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Wade Wylie (Zack Mese), 16:59. 2, Great Falls, Blake Miller (Adam Apangalook, Malachi Bushey), 17:40.
Second Period – 3, Great Falls, Georgy Ostapchuk (unassisted), 1:15. 4, Great Falls, Lucas Lomax (power play) (Cody Page), 9:07. 5, Great Falls, Cody Page (Brendan Jester, Lucas Lomax), 16:42.
Third Period – 6, Great Falls, Brendan Jester (power play) (Cody Page, Lucas Lomax), 0:17. 7, Great Falls, Erik Gatson (Lucas Stover, Connor Barta), 1:58.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 36, Glacier 12.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 2-for-3, Glacier 0-for-1.
Attendance – 200
Box Score: Great Falls @ Glacier
Additional Media Coverage: February 7, 2015: Great Falls Tribune: Americans blank Glacier; home tonight