By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., October 10, 2014 — The Great Falls Americans, leading the Frontier Division of the NA3HL in the standings, ran their record to 6-0 with a 12-1 rout over the Yellowstone Quake (1-5-1) on Friday night at home. The Cody, Wyoming franchise could not match the offensive power of the Americans who registered four first period goals.
Great Falls, currently third in the NA3HL in attendance (see list) averaging 656 fans so far this season, enjoyed a fine crowd of 762 with most of them cheering on the home team in the first of a two game series against the Quake.
Great Falls controlled the tempo of the contest from the start as they raced out to a 4-0 advantage during first period action over the fifth place Yellowstone Quake. Hunter Garris, a defenseman from Anchorage, Alaska, scored half of those goals in the first twenty minutes of ice time. The assists for the first two goals came from Lucas Stover, Robert Kalata, Adam Apangalook and Miles Giorgione. Stover increased the Americans lead to 3-0 with assistance from teammates Wade Wylie and Kalata, who received his second assist on the power play opportunity. The final score of the opening period came with 6:28 remaining and Illinois native Devin Panzeca pushed the puck past Yellowstone goalie Lance Knudson. Malachi Bushey and Connor Barta chipped in the assists. Great Falls led 25-12 in shot attempts. The Americans put up 21 (of the 25) shot attempts on Yellowstone goaltender Lance Knudson before he was replaced by AJ Hill late in the period.
The Americans offensive attack continued into the middle period as Devin Panzeca recorded his second goal of the game with 10:57 to go in the period. Arseny Ivanov and Adam Apangalook were each credited with the assists. The Americans sixth goal came 45 second later (10:12 on the clock) as Colorado native Austin Krantz put the puck between the pipes. Wade Wylie found the back of the net for Great Falls with 50 seconds left before the second intermission off a pass from Apangalook and Michael Kliment. Great Falls held a 49-21 advantage over Yellowstone in shot attempts after the first forty minutes.
It took 82 seconds in the final period for Great Falls to capitalize on another scoring opportunity. Hunter Garris added his third goal (and a hat trick) to give the Americans an 8-0 lead. Zack Mese and Marvin Simmons provided the assists. Yellowstone would get on the scoreboard and avoided a shutout with just under 12 minutes to go as Mike McCullen gave the Quake their first points of the night. The Americans finished the night with the final four straight goals in a high scoring affair. Garris, Bushey, Simmons and Panzeca rounded out the scoring for the Americans who saw seven different players score. Hunter Garris and Devin Panzeca each had a hat trick as well.
Lucas Stover’s goal in the first period was the only power play opportunity that was successful for either team. Yellowstone finished the night by going 0-for-5. Both teams combined for eight infractions on 16 minutes of penalty time.
Hunter Garris ended his night with four goals while Devin Panzeca added three for the league leading Americans. Adam Apangalook and Malachi Bushey combined for seven assists. Mike McCullen tallied the only score for the Quake in the final period.
Americans goaltender Evan Hauser picked up his fourth win of the 2014-15 campaign as he stopped 38 of the 39 shot attempts he faced against Yellowstone. Meanwhile, Lance Knudson and AJ Hill combined for 61 saves with Hill finishing with 44 of them for the Wyoming club.
NEXT CONTEST: The Americans (6-0) will play one more game against the Yellowstone Quake on Saturday, October 11th at 7:30PM at the Great Falls Ice Plex before they embark on a three game road trip including two games next weekend against the Gillette Wild in Gillette, WY and a stop on Friday, October 24th in Bozeman, MT against the Ice Dogs.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 4 | 3 | 5 | 12 |
| Yellowstone | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Hunter Garris (Lucas Stover, Robert Kalata), 3:06. 2, Great Falls, Hunter Garris (Adam Apangalook, Miles Giorgione), 9:18. 3, Great Falls, Lucas Stover (power play) (Robert Kalata, Wade Wylie), 12:44. 4, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Malachi Bushey, Connor Barta), 13:32.
Second Period – 5, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Arseny Ivanov, Adam Apangalook), 9:03. 6, Great Falls, Austin Krantz (Adam Apangalook, Miles Giorgione), 9:48. 7, Great Falls, Wade Wylie (Adam Apangalook, Michael Kliment), 19:10
Third Period –.8, Great Falls, Hunter Garris (Zack Mese, Marvin Simmons), 1:22. 9, Yellowstone, Mike McCullen (Brandon Blaszczyk, Sean Pilet), 8:05. 10, Great Falls, Hunter Garris (Connor Barta, Malachi Bushey), 16:21. 11, Great Falls, Malachi Bushey (Marvin Simmons, Michael Kliment), 16:51. 12, Great Falls, Marvin Simmons (Zack Mese), 18:08. 13, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Marvin Simmons, Malachi Bushey), 18:17.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 73, Yellowstone 39.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 1-for-1, Yellowstone 0-for-5.
Attendance – 762
Box Score: Yellowstone @ Great Falls
Additional Media Coverage: October 11, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Junior A Hockey: Great Falls still unbeaten