By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., December 20, 2014 — The Americans have won all six of their NA3HL contests against the Bozeman Ice Dogs including picking up a 3-2 decision over the Bozeman club on Friday night on the road.
Would the Americans taste their seventh victory on Saturday over the NA3HL opponent at the Great Falls Ice Plex?
The short answer is Yes and they dominated throughout the game.
The Great Falls offense lit up the scoreboard throughout the contest and charged past the visiting Bozeman franchise 9-2 on Saturday night in the final home game of 2014. Great Falls compiled five of their points in the last stanza. Great Falls now has a 24-3 record while Bozeman falls to 6-22.
There were 685 spectators watching the Americans on Cascade Farmers Mutual Insurance Night. The Americans average 679 fans per contest and currently have the fifth best attendance in the league while leading the seven member Frontier Division.
The Great Falls Americans scored three of the five first period goals. Bozeman took the early lead as Austin Charnholm was able to pick up the goal off the feed from Steven Nisbet and Dalton Rickard. Great Falls rattled off three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead. Wade Wylie, Arseny Ivanov and Lucas Lomax each took advantage of scoring opportunities for the Americans. Miles Giorgione, Robert Kalata, Michael Kliment, Lucas Lomax and Zack Mese all earned assists for Great Falls during first period action. Bozeman scored before the end of the period to cut the deficit to 3-2. Gunnar Mogck scored with 4:20 remaining with help from Kegan Couture and Ryan Erickson. Great Falls had 14 of the 20 shots on goal.
Great Falls increased their lead to 4-2 with a tally by Lucas Lomax added another score during the first 64 seconds of the middle period. Robert Kalata picked up his second assist of the night and Marvin Simmons chipped in his first on the power play score. Lomax currently leads Great Falls with 19 goals on the season while Mese is the assist leader with 18. The Americans score proved to be the only points in the second period for either team. Great Falls held a 31 to 10 advantage in the shots on goal category after the first forty minutes of the contest.
Great Falls opened up the final period with Michael Kliment adding his fifth goal of the season during the first 23 seconds. Devin Panzeca scored twice during a four-minute stretch to give the Americans a commanding 7-2 lead. Wade Wylie, Lucas Lomax, Dylan Garton, Marvin Simmons and Lucas Stover earned assists on the first three third period goals. Wade Wylie and Hunter Garris each tacked on two more goals before the end of regulation.
Lucas Lomax had a big offensive output and led the way for coach Jeff Heimel’s Americans squad by contributing two goals and two assists. Devin Panzeca scored back-to-back goals in the third period. Wade Wylie had two goals and one assist while three players including Arseny Ivanov, Michael Kliment, and Hunter Garris had one goal and an assist. Two assists apiece came via Robert Kalata and Marvin Simmons.
Great Falls finished with six infractions (four minors and one major) for 15 minutes of penalty time while Bozeman incurred eight infractions for a total of 24 minutes.
Great Falls out-shot the Ice Dogs 53 to 11 including a 22-1 advantage in the third period.
Lauren Massie was able to stop 9 of Bozeman’s 11 shot attempts and allowed the Ice Dogs to score twice in the first period. Goaltender Steven Frank of Bozeman added 44 saves but did allow nine goals in the loss. Massie is now 10-3 on the season and has accumulated 293 saves.
NOTES: The Great Falls Americans retired just their second number in club history during the first intermission of Saturday’s home contest against Bozeman. In addition to Terry Casey’s jersey, the Americans have now retired Joseph Sam Williamson’s No. 11 game jersey. Williamson, the center and team captain for Great Falls, played from 1955 until the mid-1960’s on a team that also featured Casey. The Americans all-time leading scorer was also on the 1952 United States Men’s National Team.
NEXT CONTEST: The Great Falls Americans will return to action on New Year’s Eve (Wednesday, Dec. 31st) when they head to Billings, MT to take on the Bulls. The action at the Centennial Ice Arena will begin at 7:30PM.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| Bozeman | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
First Period – 1, Bozeman, Austin Charnholm (Steven Nisbet, Dalton Rickard), 7:21. 2, Great Falls, Wade Wylie (Miles Giorgione, Robert Kalata), 8:27. 3, Great Falls, Arseny Ivanov (Michael Kliment, Lucas Lomax), 9:54. 4, Great Falls, Lucas Lomax (Zack Mese), 14:18. 5, Bozeman, Gunnar Mogck (Kegan Couture, Ryan Erickson), 15:40.
Second Period – 6, Great Falls, Lucas Lomax (power play) (Robert Kalata, Marvin Simmons), 1:04.
Third Period – 7, Great Falls, Michael Kliment (Lucas Lomax, Dylan Garton), 0:23. 8, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Wade Wylie, Marvin Simmons), 3:49. 9, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Lucas Stover), 7:35. 10, Great Falls, Wade Wylie (Arseny Ivanov, Hunter Garris), 12:47. 11, Great Falls, Hunter Garris (Austin Krantz, Malachi Bushey), 15:01.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 53, Bozeman 11.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 1-for-3, Bozeman 0-for-3.
Attendance – 685
Box Score: Bozeman @ Great Falls
Additional Media Coverage: December 20, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Americans retire Williamson No. 11 jersey on December 20th
Additional Media Coverage: December 21, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Americans win, dominate third period