Nationals split in a pair of shootouts

All season long, the Glacier Nationals have been working to find consistency. Well. It looks like the hard work is starting to pay off as the Nationals earned three points in two games this weekend against Frontier Division powers Helena and Billings.

The Nationals, who compete in the North American Tier 3 Hockey League, came agonizingly close to a sweep this week over their divisional rivals, but instead settled for an overtime loss against Helena inside the Havre Ice Dome Friday night and an overtime win on the road Saturday against Billings.

In the first game of the weekend, Glacier played host to Helena. And in search of their first home win since Oct. 3, the Nationals jumped out 2-0 after goals by Joshua Larson and Tyler McMahon, the second one coming with 7:25 left in the second period.

The Bighorns, who were held scoreless for the first 33 minutes of the game, finally got a goal when Blake Babineau scored to trim the Glacier lead to 2-1. However, with just minutes remaining in the period Brandon Huntington scored to give the Nationals a 3-1 lead going into the third and final period.

Yet, Helena crept back into the game when Brandon Mills beat National’s goaltender Ryan Lund with 11:22 left in the game to trim the deficit to one at 3-2. Then, Helena’s Gregory Ostachpuck got the equalizer with 2:35 remaining in the game.

Neither team managed a goal in the final minutes of regulation and neither scored in the five minutes of overtime that followed, sending the game into a shootout, where each teams gets five penalty shots on the goalie and the team with the most goals wins.

In the shootout, neither team scored on its first four attempts but on Helena’s final attempt, Brandt Miller scored to give the Bighorns a 1-0 lead. Tyler Unekis had a shot to tie for Glacier but missed, giving Helena the victory.

Despite the loss, the Nationals earned a point because of the overtime loss. It was the National’s second overtime loss to Helena this season.

Following their home loss to Helena, the Nationals traveled to Billings to take on the Bulls in the fifth meeting between the two teams this season.

For the second night in a row, the Nationals grabbed the first lead of the game, this one coming with 10:16 left in the first period from Blake Evennou. Billings answered just minutes later when Reed Kaiser scored to make the score 1-1 at the end of the first period.

After both teams went scoreless for much the second period, McMahon finally broke the spell with 1:42 left in the period, beating Billings’ goalie Ray Smith to give Glacier a 2-1.

The score stayed the same until late in the final period, when with less than eight minutes left in regulation, Tristian Henrichs scored a goal to tie the game up at 2-2. Neither team scored before the end of regulation nor after five minutes of overtime hockey, which meant the Nationals found themselves in a shootout once again.

Both teams failed to score on their first four attempts leading again to the fifth penalty. It all seemed the same as the night before against Helena. But in the end, it wasn’t. Luke Dickson found the net on the fifth attempt for the Nationals. Lund followed that up with a save on the Bull’s fifth and final shot and the game was over.

The win was just the second of the season for Lund and just the third on the year for Glacier. After stopping 44 shots in defeat against Helena, Lund was masterful against the Bulls, with 52 saves as well as five more saves in the shootout.

The Nationals improved to 3-13-4 with their win and overtime loss over the weekend. They will be back in action this Friday when they host Great Falls inside the Havre Ice Dome. The first puck will drop at 8 p.m. Then, Glacier will take off to Blaine, Minnesota, for the NA3HL Showcase