Glacier drops three in Minnesota

Starting this past Sunday and over the last three days, the Glacier Nationals have been competing in the prestigious North American Tier 3 Hockey League's annual showcase.

The showcase, which is held in Blaine, Minnesota, gives the players a chance to get more exposure from scouts, while giving teams like Glacier a break from their division schedules and a chance to go up against some challenging new opponents.

It's hard to say if any of the Nationals' players got noticed by scouts or colleges, but the Nationals as a team had a less than stellar experience losing all three games in the showcase, Glacier fell to Dallas, Southern Tier and Cleveland by the scores of 3-1, 6-4 and 5-0, respectively.

After making the long trek for the showcase, the Nationals opened up Sunday morning against Dallas. But, despite Glacier's best efforts, and an early 1-0 lead thanks to goal from Tommy Kaddatz, the Nationals simply couldn't outlast Dallas, which scored one goal in the second to tie the game and two in the third to clinch the victory.

Ryan Lund was hit with the loss for the Nationals after allowing three goals on 16 shots. He later gave way to Kyle Provencher midway through the second period. Provencher stopped all nine shots he faced.

In the National's second game of the showcase Monday against Southern Tier, Glacier was able to put together one of its better offensive games of the year with four goals, but it was simply not enough as the Nationals still dropped the game by two goals, 6-4.

However, early on in the game it appeared as though the Nationals might be on their way to their fourth win of the season as they jumped out to a 3-1 lead by the 14:49 mark thanks to goals by Prokofil Vladykoskly and two by Karson Frisk.

Yet, Southern Tier responded and took its first lead of the game with a goal in third period to go ahead d 4-3. But not to be denied, the Nationals tied the score on a goal by Matt Gamblin shorty after to make it 4-4 with 6:47 to go in the game.

However, Southern Tier got a goal just 45 seconds later to reclaim the lead, and then less than two minutes later, Southern Tier put the game on ice with another goal to wrap up the two-goal victory.

Lund was again pinned with the loss but did manage to stop 41 of the 47 shots that Southern Tier fired at him.

In the National's final matchup Tuesday, they took on Cleveland, which earned a hard-fought 5-0 shutout win over Glacier. Cleveland, which outshot the Nationals 45-19 had a just a one goal lead at the first quarter, which grew to a three-goal advantage by the end of the second period.

Cleveland added two more goals in the third period to lock up the shutout win. Lund was again stuck with the loss after notching 40 saves in 45 shots in the loss.

With the three losses, the Nationals' record falls to 3-17-4 on the season. They currently have just 10 points in the Frontier Division standings, one point ahead of last-place Bozeman.

Speaking of Bozeman, the Nationals will host the Ice Dogs Saturday night at the Havre Ice Dome then again Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The back-to-back games will mark the first time that the Nationals and Ice Dogs have played this season.