Nationals home to host Americans tonight

The day after Thanksgiving is always a great day for sports. But when it comes to Havre, the only game in town on Thanksgiving weekend will be the Glacier Nationals, who are looking to brighten their season with a pair of upset victories.

The Nationals will get their first shot at an upset on tonight, when they will host the Great Falls Americans at the Havre Ice Dome. Glacier will be looking to avenge an 8-2 defeat, while at the same time snap an eight-game winless streak. The Nationals and Americans will get things underway Friday at 8 p.m. Then the Nationals will hit the road to close out the weekend as they will pay a visit to the Helena Bighorns Saturday night. The first puck will drop at 7:30 p.m.

So far this season, the Nationals and Americans, who each compete in the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League, have met three times and each time Great Falls won in a rout. In three games against Glacier, the Americans have outscored the Nationals by a combined margin of 25-4.

In nine games, the Americans are 14-5. The Nationals, on the other hand, are 2-14-2. Thanks to their stellar record, the Americans are leading the Frontier Division. Glacier currently sits in last tied with Billings.

By all accounts, Great Falls should be able to cruise to another victory over the Nationals tonight, but when the two teams met before in Havre, the score was 1-1 in the third period, before Great Falls ran away with it thanks to four third-period goals.

The thing that really makes the Americans difficult to beat is their outstanding defense. In their 19 games, they have surrendered just 36 goals, which works out to less than two per game. In comparison, Glacier has scored a total of 47 goals in 19 games and the Nationals have allowed a staggering 109 goals or more than six per game.

One of the few bright spots this season for Glacier has been the play of Tyler McMahon, who leads the Nationals in scoring with a total of 15 goals. Collin Schieman has also been a key contributor of late for Glacier with six goals. Marvin Simmons have five.

Brendan Jester leads the Americans offense into the game with a team-high 11 goals, while Tegan Harrington is second on the team with eight. Three other players have at least five goals this season.

In net, the Americans also have one of the best goalies in the NA3HL in Lauren Massie, who has a goals against averse of 1.76, a 6-3 record and a save percentage of 93 percent. The Nationals have gone with a committee approach in net with Mikhail Pahrebets, Raymond Smith and Ben Perone all seeing action.

After taking on Great Falls tonight, the Nationals will travel to Helena Saturday to take on the 11-6 Big Horns, who are another playoff contender in the Frontier. The two teams met earlier in the season, with Helena winning 7-1 back on Sept. 19.

The Big Horns have a plus 12 goal differential and part of the reason why has been the stellar goaltending they have gotten from Grant Martens, Alex Kruger and Adam Ranck. Offensively, Ryan Daugherty is the leading scorer for Helena with 11 goals. Riley Keays also has six as does Gavin Lubin, a former Nationals player.

Glacier and Great Falls will meet tonight at 8 inside the Havre Ice Dome. Saturday’s game in Helena will start at 7 p.m. Glacier is home for two games against Yellowtone next weekend.