By Kevin Scott
| Box Score | Game Sheet | League Scoreboard | Americans Team Statistics |
GREAT FALLS, Mont., October 28, 2022 — The #3 Great Falls Americans (7-6-0-0) is set to entertain the #7 Badlands (SD) Sabres (3-9-1-0) for the first two of six meetings this season. This weekend will be the only time that Great Falls fans will see the Americans challenge the Sabres as the last four encounters will take place at the Roosevelt Park Ice Arena in Rapid City, South Dakota on December 2-3, and February 3-4.
The Americans have won half of their twelve contests with three victories each over the (Yellowstone) Quake and the (Butte) Cobras. Badlands has tasted victory three times with two wins over the Quake and one over the Cobras.
Badlands is led by Zack Vockler’s seven goals, five assists and Dawson Wirth has accrued four goals and seven assists. Ian Vanelli leads the team in assists with nine. Goaltenders Brady Devries and Zach Broxterman have combined for a 3-9-1 record this season in the net.
Defenseman William Fallman (7 goals, 7 assists) and Alex Leaf (1 goal, 13 assists) are the point leaders for the Americans with 14.
The Great Falls Americans halted their two-game skid on Friday night with an easy 5-1 win over the Badlands (SD) Sabres at the Great Falls Ice Plex. William Fallman, Dawson Bunch, Russ Rasmussen, Ben Cremers and Simon Lazsloffy all added goals to their resume for the home team.
The first scoring drive came fifteen minutes into the opening period when Ben Cremers and Alex Leaf’s pass to William Fallman proved to be successful against Badlands netminder Zach Broxterman Great Falls led 1-0 before the first intermission with the home team taking 19 of the 35 shots.
Badlands forward Kael Campbell lit up the lamp for the second time this season as his equalizer occurred with 13:44 remaining in the second stanza to even the score (1-1) as the Americans were in the penalty box. Hunter Walla was credited with the assist. Two minutes later, the Americans broke the tie with a goal by Ben Cremers with assistance from Phil Harrell and Garrett Weisenburger. Cremers buried his third goal in 13 games with the Sabres down a man (penalty). The Americans increased the lead before the period expired. Dawson Bunch, Russ Rasmussen, and Simon Lazsloffy each put the biscuit in the basket. Jace Thompson, Phil Harrell, Aidan McCormick, Garrett Weisenburger and Sterling Amdahl gathered the assists. Lazsloffy, from North Pole, Alaska, scored his first career goal for Great Falls in seven appearances. Great Falls’ 5-1 lead carried them into the third frame. Both squads combined for 64 shots-on-goal after 40 minutes of play.
Despite many chances in the net, the Americans and Sabres went scoreless in the third frame as Great Falls stopped their losing streak after suffering two setbacks to the #2 Gillette (WY) Wild last weekend.
Ben Cremers led the Americans with a goal and an assist. The Badlands duo of Kael Campbell (1 goal) and Hunter Walla (1 assist) led the visiting Sabres in scoring.
Great Falls and Badlands each took advantage of one of their four power play opportunities. Both NA3HL clubs combined for 13 infractions and 34 minutes spent off the ice.
Josh Koziol picked up his fifth victory in ten contests for the host team. He had one second period blemish but finished with 41 saves. Zach Broxterman (1-8-1-0 took his ninth loss of the season for the Rapid City, South Dakota based Sabres.
With the Butte Cobras 7-3 road loss to the #2 Gillette Wild on Friday evening in Wyoming, the Americans moved into third place with their first win of the weekend and seventh victory overall.
NOTES: The Great Falls Community Ice Foundation (GFCIF) invites you to enjoy some delicious pizza from MOD Pizza (1125 10th Avenue South) on Halloween (October 31, 2022) from 10:30AM until 10:00PM with 20% of all the proceeds going towards the Great Falls Ice Plex.
Facebook Event Information: Halloween pizza fundraiser | Facebook
If dining in at the store, please used promotional code, MODF14051 when completing your order with the cashier. Fans can order online through the MOD App or MOD website and use the promotional code MODF14051 before completing their transaction.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: The Frontier Division’s top team, the Helena Bighorns (12-2-0-1) had a difficult time stopping the #5 Sheridan (WY) Hawks (6-6-1-0) on Friday night in Wyoming. Helena trailed 5-1 after two periods and tried unsuccessfully to make a comeback but the Hawks pulled away with a 7-5 victory. Sam Kleiman-Lee led Sheridan with two successful scoring drives. TJ Norris had two third period goals for the Bighorns. Patric Loeffler stopped 43 of the 48 shots-on-goal for the winning side. Meanwhile Aidan Wright took the loss with 24 saves and teammate Gabe Swanson swatted away nine shots for Helena (box score).
The #2 Gillette (WY) Wild (11-1-0-1) 7-3 win over the #4 Butte Cobras (6-6-1-0) kept them two points away from the top-seeded Helena Bighorns, who came up short to the Sheridan Hawks on Friday. Despite falling behind (2-1) after the first period, the Wild’s offense rattled off four consecutive goals in the middle period and scored the first two in third to shut down the Cobras. Sky Solig and teammate Saizha Norwegian each answered with one goal and dished out three assists for the Wild. Butte’s duo of Luke Schleusner and Nick Bradshaw recorded one goal and assisted on one scoring play. Jake Turek won for the fourth time in five outings as he redirected 26 shots for Gillette. Caleb Cross amassed 48 saves in the loss and Nikolai Wallery came in relief of him late in the third prevented all four shots from getting by him (box score).
The #6 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (4-8-0-1) needed just two goals to escape with a 2-1 win over the #8 Bozeman Ice Dogs (3-10-0-0) on Friday at Wyoming’s Riley Arena. All three scoring drives came during the first 22 minutes of the contest. Joey Good and Spencer Stenholm lit up the lamp for the Quake while Kole Morris had the lone score for the Ice Dogs. The score could have been higher if both teams would have connected on their six power play chances that went unanswered. Yellowstone’s John Hughes (29 saves) was the victorious goaltender while Cam Milewski (43 saves) took the loss (box score).
NEXT CONTEST: Great Falls concludes their seven-game October home stand with their second meeting with the Badlands (SD) Sabres on Saturday, October 29th at 7:30PM (MST) at the Great Falls Ice Plex with live action on HockeyTV.
Additional Media Coverage: October 26, 2022: 560AM-KMON: Weekly Radio Interview by KMON’s Randy Bogden with Great Falls Americans Head Coach Greg Sears every Wednesday morning. Click here to listen to the full interviews.