Nationals tripped by Americans at home

There is no question that the Glacier Nationals are a team on the rise. And even though the Nationals fell short on their home ice to the Great Falls Americans Friday night, Glacier put together its best offensive output of the season and continued to show why they are a much different team than the one that started the 2014-15 campaign.

In a battle between teams within the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League, the Americans downed the Nationals 7-5 inside the Havre Ice Dome in an explosive display of offensive hockey. And in getting the win, the Americans were able to extract some revenge on Glacier for a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Nationals in Great Falls Nov. 21.

The game couldn't have started much better for Glacier after Matt Gamblin opened the scoring just 1:45 into the first period, beating Great Falls goalie Evan Hauser for an unassisted goal to give Glacier a 1-0 lead.

The Americans answered just minutes later when Dylan Garton scored to tie the game at 1-1 with 14:37 left in the period, but with 6:51 left in the opening frame, Gavin Lubin scored another unassisted goal for the Nationals, giving Glacier a 2-1 lead at the end of one.

In the second, Great Falls showed why it has lost just twice all season and got goals from Miles Giorgione and Lucas Lomax to take their first lead of the game at 3-2 with 11 minutes left in the second. Yet, the Nationals responded when Karson Frisk found the net with 4:11 left in the period thanks to the assist from Gamblin to tie things up at 3-3. Unfortunately for Glacier, the tie would be short lived and with less than two minutes before the period was over, Cody Page scored to give the Americans a 4-3 advantage heading into the final stanza.

Great Falls quickly extended its lead just 1:56 into the final period when Marvin Simmons scored to push the lead to 5-3. But, Glacier refused to go down without a fight and just 57 seconds later, Luke Dickison scored to get the Nationals back within one at 5-4 with 17:07 left in the game.

However, the Americans would answer again as Garton and Lomax scored a back-to-back goals, which were eight minutes apart to give Great Falls a comfortable 7-4 edge. The Nationals would get another goal, when Lubin scored his second of the game with 4:30 left in regulation but it was too little too late for Glacier and the Americans hung on for the 7-5 victory.

Despite allowing five goals, Hauser was given the win for the Americans and did finish with an impressive 46 saves. Nolan Slager was given the loss for the Nationals after stopping 45 of the 52 shots fired at him by the Americans.

The loss dropped the Nationals' record to 3-14-4 on the season, leaving them still in sixth out of seven teams in the Frontier.

Glacier will be on the ice again this week as they compete today and Tuesday in the NA3HL Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota.