By Kevin Scott
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GREAT FALLS, Mont., October 27, 2017 — Great Falls (9-1-2-0) has enjoyed plenty of success while playing in front of the home crowd at the Great Falls Ice Plex this season. Their six games on home ice has produced six wins.
Back on October 6th, the Missoula Jr. Bruins came to town and Great Falls was able to pull off the 4-2 victory in front of the 700 fans in attendance.
Former Great Falls Americans Cameron Cunningham, who played with the 2016-17 edition of the Great Falls Americans for 14 games before being traded to Missoula, gave the Bruins a 5-4 win in overtime with his slapshot that sailed by the Americans goaltender. The loss marked the second time this season that Great Falls fell in an extra period.
Early in the first period, Great Falls started things off on the right track by accumulating two goals. Cody Dearing and Ben Rinckey put the puck in the net.
Missoula would fight their way back into the game by opening up the middle period with three straight goals. Parker Todd, Misha Akatnov, and Ryley Cook each gave Coach Marcus Baxter’s team a slight lead (3-2). After Tanner Rath tied the game for the Americans, Jens Juliussen helped coach Jeff Heimel’s team regain the lead with his power play score with 43 seconds left in the second. The Americans tripled the number of shots taken before the second intermission (33-11).
Both teams took 19 shots combined in the final period, but only Missoula was able to get any points out of it. Isaac Vincent scored his third goal of the season with about nine minutes left in regulation. The Bruins defense made Great Falls settle for six shots with no points scored. An extra five-minute overtime was needed to determine a winner.
Cameron Cunningham needed 95 seconds to end Great Falls’ three game winning streak. Josh Kirk set up the winning scoring drive. Missoula came away with the victory despite being out-shot 39-27.
Missoula had players in the penalty box for 18 minutes while Great Falls finished with four infractions for eight minutes.
Brian Thomas gave Missoula the road win by deflecting 35 of the 39 shots. Mack Willy and Bryan Sharp accumulated 22 saves with Sharp picking up the overtime loss.
NEXT CONTEST: Missoula remains in Great Falls for another game on Saturday, October 28th at 7:30PM.