By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., November 21, 2014 — It was ten weeks ago when the 2014-15 NA3HL season began and the Glacier Nationals, who moved in the offseason from Whitefish to their new home in Havre, Montana, made their home debut against fourth-year Great Falls Americans.
To be exact, it was on Saturday, September 20th when both teams met on the ice for the season opener in Havre. Great Falls came away with an 8-2 victory.
Since then, Great Falls had won 15 of their first 16 contests with their only loss coming from Bozeman a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Glacier (2-12-3) came into their road game at Great Falls on Friday night with only one win against the Yellowstone Quake earlier this season.
On Friday night, the Glacier Nationals handed the Great Falls franchise a 2-1 setback at the Great Falls Ice Plex in front of 510 fans that came out to support the Americans in their final home game in November. The loss for the Americans (15-2) was just their second of the 2014-15 campaign.
Both teams remained scoreless in the opening stanza until the last 2:36 when Americans goaltender Lauren Massie and forward Marvin Simmons found an open Malachi Bushey for the first score of the contest. The Americans accounted for 23 of the 30 total shots on goal.
Great Falls would hold on to a 1-0 advantage after neither team was able to find the back of the net during the second period of NA3HL hockey action in Great Falls. The Americans continued to out-shoot the visiting team 43-14 after 40 minutes of playing time.
The Nationals would even the score 1-1 with 13:58 left in the final period of regulation. Tommy Kaddatz registered the power play score off the stick of Matt Gamblin and Joshua Larson. Alaska native Joshua Larson prevented overtime with the game-winning goal with 37 seconds left for the Havre franchise. The short-handed goal went unassisted.
Glacier’s Tommy Kaddatz converted the only power play opportunity (1-4) in the game in the third period while the Americans couldn’t convert any of their five power play chances.
The Americans (15-2) finished with 14 minutes of penalties on 7 infractions.
Goaltender Ryan Lund got the win for the Nationals with 57 saves. Despite the loss, Lauren Massie ended his night with 17 saves.
NEXT CONTEST: The Americans will be on the road for the first of their five Sunday afternoon games that they will participate in this season. Great Falls will head to the Capital City (Helena, MT) to face the Helena Bighorns at 3:05PM (MST) on Sunday, November 23rd.
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Great Falls | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Glacier | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
First Period – 1, Great Falls, Malachi Bushey (Marvin Simmons, Lauren Massie), 17:24.
Second Period – NO SCORING
Third Period – 2, Glacier, Tommy Kaddatz (power play) (Matt Gamblin, Joshua Larson), 6:02. 3, Glacier, Joshua Larson (short-handed) (unassisted), 19:23.
Shots on Goal – Great Falls 58, Glacier 19.
Power-play Opportunities – Great Falls 0-for-5, Glacier 1-for-4.
Attendance – 510
Box Score: Glacier @ Great Falls
Additional Media Coverage: November 21, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Great Falls Americans keep rolling
Additional Media Coverage: November 22, 2014: Great Falls Tribune: Junior A Hockey: Americans fall to Glacier Nationals