Nationals fall in season, home debuts

It may seem strange to call the Glacier Nationals debut representing the community of Havre successful after dropping back-to-back games to open the season. But judging from the packed house at the Havre Ice Dome and the improved play from game one to game two, it definitely can't be deemed a failure.

The Nationals opened play in the Frontier Division of the Northern American Tier 3 Hockey League Friday night against traditional power Helena, which defeated the Nationals in dominating fashion by the score of 10-0.

Saturday, the Nationals returned home and made their debut inside the Havre Ice Dome, when they took on the Great Falls Americans, and once again they were defeated handily by a final score of 7-2.

Prior to Friday night, the Nationals had just one player on their roster with previous experience in junior hockey, so facing the Bighorns and Americans, traditionally the top two teams in the former American West Hockey League, was a difficult way to open the season.

"We had 19 kids play their first junior hockey game (on Friday)," General Manager Butch Kowalka said. "And they definitely were like deer in the head lights. (Saturday) they came in with their eyes wide open and they were focused on what we were doing, and I think we saw that out on the ice. Great Falls has beat Helena twice, and we went out and I felt like we were competitive with them."

A common theme for both of their losses against Helena and Great Falls was too much time in the penalty box. Against the Bighorns, the Nationals racked up 27 minutes of penalties against Great Falls it was 37 minutes.

"Obviously, we need to stay out of the penalty box a little more," Kowalka said. "I didn't always agree with all the calls against us, but they call them like they see them and you have to play through it. So, I thought the boys did well."

After being shut out by Helena in the season opener, the Nationals got their first goal of the 2014-15 campaign late in the first period against Great Falls. Trailing 2-0 to the Americans, Jarod Ackerman found the back of the net with 1:25 left in the period to cut the Great Falls lead down to 2-1. Brendan Jester and Wyatt Fretheim were each credited with an assist on the goal.

The Americans responded with four unanswered goals in the second period, and entering the final period the Nationals found themselves behind 6-1.

Glacier showed some life early in the final period when the lone returner from the Nationals' roster a year ago, Karson Frisk, scored an unassisted goal to make the score 6-2 with 17:12 left in the game.

Unfortunately, the Nationals would not get any closer. The Americans added two more goals, one with five seconds left in the game to make the final 8-2.

Even though the Nationals did allow goals in two games, goaltender Ryan Lund was solid between the pipes, notching 88 saves combined in the two games.

"I thought that we actually played well defensively," Kowalka said. "We had a lot of penalty minutes so they easily could have scored 15 goals. We wanted to keep them away from the net and I thought we did a good job of that."

At the end of the night, Kowalka was encouraged by the improved play of his young team as well as the enthusiasm and support of the 375 fans in attendance.

"The crowd was fantastic. They were really energetic and they kept our boys in it," Kowalka said. "It's hard to kill that many penalties and it takes the crowd to keep them pumped up, so it worked out great for us. It was a packed house."

The Nationals will be on the road this week as they travel to Gillette, Wyoming for back-to-back games against the Gillette franchise on Friday and Saturday night.