NOTE: A Special Thanks to Dustin Bauer for providing the photos.
By Kevin Scott
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Score Sheet | League Scoreboard | Americans Team Statistics |
GREAT FALLS, Mont., January 13, 2024 — The #4 Great Falls Americans (16-15-0-1) were looking to get back to winning after coming up short in their previous five games (0-4-0-1) including two of their three games at the 2023 NA3HL Showcase Tournament in December. They also lost to the Alexandria (MN) Blizzard and the Louisiana Drillers before the NA3HL’s winter break at the prestigious tournament that saw all 34 NA3HL teams participate. The Butte Irish also defeated the Americans in two contests last weekend in Butte, Montana as the NA3HL Frontier Division play resumed.
The Americans last victory came during their December 17th game at the Showcase against the New Jersey Titans where they escaped with a 2-1 win. Click here to see their full schedule and results from this season so far.
On Friday, January 12th, Great Falls and the #3 Bozeman Ice Dogs (19-13-0-1) battled in Great Falls with each team scoring twice and setting up a quiet overtime before the Ice Dogs prevailed in the shootout for a 3-2 win (game story).
On a cold and snowy weekend in Great Falls, the Americans were hoping to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Bozeman Ice Dogs on Saturday.
The third-ranked Bozeman Ice Dogs scored late in the third period to hold off the fourth-ranked Great Falls Americans, 3-2 to complete the weekend sweep at the Great Falls Ice Plex during Saturday’s contest.
The Americans scored one goal on eleven shot attempts within the first twenty minutes of action on the ice. Forward Zac Orwig put the biscuit in the basket for the fifth time this season with Sebe Perez (seventh assist) and Aaron James (23rd assist) collecting the assists for the early lead 63 seconds into the game. Great Falls goaltender Noah Van Herik prevented all fifteen shots from going in the net.
Bozeman’s Tyler Klingbeil scored two goals in a 44-second span in the middle period to put the Ice Dogs out in front before the second intermission. The first goal with 14:05 remaining came while the Americans were in the sin bin. Ben Fries set up both scoring plays. The rivals combined for 29 shots.
Early in the third, Aiden Kennedy assisted on the game-tying score (2-2) by Ty O’Bey during the first three minutes of action. Bodie Shepardson scored the go-ahead (and the eventual game-winning) score midway through the stanza for the Ice Dogs off the stick of teammate Tyler Klingbeil. Ben Fries accumulated his third assist.
The host team outshot the visitors in the final two periods to finish with 46 while Bozeman had 29 of their 45 shots before the second intermission.
Both Frontier Division teams did not commit many penalties. The NA3HL on-ice officials called six total infractions. The Ice Dogs went 1-for-3 while Great Falls went 0-for-1.
Sean Smer of Bozeman now has two victories when facing the Americans and has an overall 6-1-0-0 record. The second-year Bozeman netminder swatted away 44 shots. Noah Van Herik (0-1-0-0) made his debut as the Americans netminder ended his night with 42 saves.
FRONTIER DIVISION UPDATE: The #1 Gillette (WY) Wild (30-2-0-1) showed the league why they are one of the top teams this weekend. After scoring 16 goals in Friday’s performance, they tacked on 12 more as the Wild cruised to a 12-1 win over the #8 Yellowstone (WY) Quake (0-30-3-0) for the weekend sweep. Jace Johnson, Isaac Young and Elliot Testa scored half of their team’s goals in the Wild’s dominating victory. Owen Schoonover scored the game’s second goal and the only score for the Quake in the first stanza. Gillette’s offense outplayed Yellowstone’s by attempting 109 shots while the Quake made seven. Josh Bieniewicz (3-0-0-0) redirected six of the seven shots created by the Quake. John Hughes (0-9-2-0) accrued 97 saves in his second weekend loss (Box Score).
The #2 Helena Bighorns (30-2-0-0) led 7-0 for the first 28 minutes before the #7 Butte Irish (13-20-0-0) got the puck in the net. Helena outscored the visitors, 5-1 the rest of the way for the 12-2 win. Finn Theriault, Cam Young, Braden Cunningham, and Cai Robinson each secured two goals apiece for the Bighorns. Patrick Crooks scored in the second and Max Lazzaro chipped in a goal in the third for the Irish. Malik Johnson played all sixty minutes for Helena stopping 14 shots to run his record to 11-0-0-0 in his first season. Keegan Strong got the start for Butte allowing two goals in eight minutes before being replaced by Joshua Horacek (0-5-0-0), who had 50 saves in the setback (Box Score).
The #6 Badlands (SD) Sabres (12-15-3-3) earned the 6-4 road victory over the #5 Sheridan (WY) Quake to earn the weekend sweep. On Friday, the Sabres won 4-1. Six different players scored for the South Dakota NA3HL team with Aden Cobbs, Zach Vockler, Ryan Jordan, Brady Ridnour, Alexander Petrotto and Dylan Woolstenhulme added goals to their resume. The four goals by Sheridan were scored by Caleb Murray, Tanner Freed, Ayden Attungana and Makhai Sparks. Easton Eriksmoen (46 saves) now has eight wins this season (8-7-1-0) for the Sabres. His counterpart, Aidan Knox (2-4-0-0) rejected 28 shots (Box Score).
NOTES: Check out all the Americans photos throughout the season including some taken during Saturday’s game by Americans photographer, Dustin Bauer. Click here to view all the photos from the 2023-24 season.
Click here to view the Americans online team store that features a variety of different souvenirs to purchase. A store is available at all home games. Fans can also buy game day tickets on the website prior to the game by clicking here.
Please check out the Americans website at www.greatfallsamericans.com for all your updated news, game summaries, rosters, photo galleries, etc.
NEXT CONTEST: With two weeks remaining in the month of January, the Americans sit idle next weekend (January 19-20) before facing a rematch with the #4 Bozeman Ice Dogs inside Bozeman’s Haynes Pavilion on January 26-27 starting at 7:30PM (MST) each night live on NAHLTV. To learn more about how to watch the Americans in action on NAHL TV, please click here.
Click here for the 2023-24 Great Falls Americans schedule and results.