By Kevin Scott
| Box Score | Game Sheet | League Scoreboard | Americans Team Statistics |
HAVRE, Mont., October 2, 2015 — The Great Falls Americans (4-0) and the Glacier Nationals (0-4-1) met for the second time this season in as many weeks on Friday night in Havre, Montana.
In the first game of the season for both teams back on September 18th, the Great Falls Americans offense came out on fire at the Great Falls Ice Plex by scoring 12 goals including the first six in the first twenty minutes of play.
Americans goaltender Lauren Massie was near perfection as he allowed just one goal to get by him in the 60 minutes of action in a 12-1 rout against the Nationals. The only score by the Glacier offense came in the final 97 seconds of regulation.
Americans forward Brendan Jester also had a hat trick in that contest.
In their second matchup, the Great Falls Americans took advantage of scoring four of their five goals in the third period to defeat the Glacier Nationals 5-1 for the second time this season at the Havre Ice Dome on Friday evening in Havre, Montana.
Both teams struggled to find the back of the net during the opening period. During the first twenty minutes, the Great Falls offense unsuccessfully put up 13 shots against Glacier goaltender Mikhail Pahrebets. Glacier was limited to seven shots.
Glacier’s Brett LeBeau and Wyatt Fretheim found Tyler McMahon open for the game’s first score with 14:59 left in the middle period. Great Falls would answer quickly to tie the game at 1-1 as Malachi Bushey netted his first score of the game and his second goal of the season with help from teammate Austin Krantz 56 seconds after the Nationals score. Neither team would add points for the rest of the period. The Americans registered 24 shots on goal before the second intermission holding the host team to 17.
Great Falls’ Tanner Congdon, a forward from Anchorage, Alaska, gave the Americans their first lead of the night (2-1) with his unassisted scoring drive coming during the first two minutes of the final period of regulation. The Americans increased their lead to 3-1 a few minutes later with a tally by Latvia native Ricards Bernhards. Josh Larson and Tanner Congdon picked up their first assists of the evening for the fourth year Junior A franchise. Bernhards scored his fifth goal in four games in his first season for the Americans. Rounding out the scoring for the coach Jeff Heimel’s squad were Jake Stephan and Tegan Harrington. Assists for the final two points came from Arseny Ivanov, Adam Apangalook and Blake Miller.
Great Falls and Glacier failed to turn any of their six combined power play chances into points.
Great Falls incurred four penalties resulting in eight minutes of penalty time.
Kevin Hale received his first victory between the pipes for Great Falls as he recorded 23 saves. Despite the loss, Mikhail Pahrebets chipped in 27 saves for the Havre franchise.
In addition to Great Falls, the Gillette Wild (3-0) and the Bozeman Ice Dogs (1-0) are also undefeated in league play so far this season.
NEXT CONTEST: Great Falls will return home on Saturday, October 3rd when the Billings Bulls come to town. The action starts at 7:30PM at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
Additional Media Coverage: September 24, 2015: Great Falls Tribune: Americans still unbeaten