By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., October 11, 2014 — A night after Great Falls completely dominating their matchup with the Yellowstone Quake with a 12-1 win, the Americans were trying to get their second straight victory over the Wyoming franchise (and their seventh overall) on Saturday night in front of another packed house at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
It was a different game than Friday night’s contest was with the Americans and Quake trading points early on before the Americans offense handed the visiting team from Cody, Wyoming a 4-2 setback at the Great Falls Ice Plex on Saturday evening.
Great Falls got the first points of the night as Robert Kalata’s power play opportunity was successful off the pass from Austin Krantz and Wade Wylie six minutes into their second game in as many nights. Yellowstone was able to get back and tie it with Will Landsverk’s goal at the 7:49 mark of the opening period. John Scherer and Max Doner collected the assists on the Quake’s goal. Yellowstone did manage to out-shoot the Americans 13-10.
Yellowstone grabbed their first lead as Max Doner found a wide open John Scherer for the score over Americans goaltender Lauren Massie halfway through the period. The Americans’ Devin Panzeca was able to connect on a shot by teammate Jonathan Carpenter to tie the hockey game at 2-2. The Americans made Yellowstone goaltender Sean Leahy work in the middle period as he was faced with 31 shots.
The Great Falls franchise took their first lead since the first period 4:45 into the final period. Michael Kliment registered the tie-breaking goal with help from Robert Kalata and Lucas Stover. The final goal was scored by Robert Kalata, who added his second score with less than five minutes remaining to seal the win for the Americans.
Coach Jeff Heimel’s squad converted one of their three power plays while Yellowstone could not find a way to get any points off of their three opportunities.
Robert Kalata led the charge for the Americans by adding a goal in the first and third periods and he now has four goals in seven games. Wade Wylie and Lucas Stover each added two more assists to their season totals of seven and six, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Quake (1-6-1) had goals scored by Will Landsverk and John Scherer while Max Doner finished his night with two assists.
There were very few penalties as each NA3HL club finished with three infractions for six minutes of penalty time.
Lauren Massie had 24 saves for his third win of the season while Sean Leahy of Yellowstone stopped 52 of 56 shot attempts taken by the Americans offense.
NEXT CONTEST: Great Falls will be on the road for just the third time this season as they face the Gillette Wild on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 17-18th) against the Gillette Wild in Gillette, WY with the action starting at 7:30PM.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Yellowstone | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Robert Kalata (power play) (Austin Krantz, Wade Wylie), 6:18. 2, Yellowstone, Will Landsverk (John Scherer, Max Doner), 12:11.
Second Period – 3, Yellowstone, John Scherer (Max Doner), 8:24. 4, Great Falls, Devin Panzeca (Jonathan Carpenter), 11:00.
Third Period – 5, Great Falls, Michael Kliment (Robert Kalata, Lucas Stover), 4:45. 6, Great Falls, Robert Kalata (Wade Wylie, Lucas Stover), 15:04.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 56, Yellowstone 26.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 1-for-3, Yellowstone 0-for-3.
Attendance – 624
Box Score: Yellowstone @ Great Falls
Additional Media Coverage: October 12, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Junior A Hockey: Great Falls still unbeaten