Quake rocks Nationals, twice

The Glacier Nationals came into the weekend hoping that they would be able to put an end to their 10-game winless streak, unfortunately, the Yellowstone Quake had other ideas.

The Nationals, hosted Yellowstone in back-to-back Frontier Division games inside the Havre Ice Dome Friday and Saturday. Yet, the Quake were unkind to their hosts and easily swept the two-game set by the scores of 13-2 and 8-2 respectively.

With the losses, the Nationals’ winless streak has now reached 12 games and on the season they are 2-18-2. With just six points in the standings, Glacier finds itself in last place, trailing Great Falls, which has 34 points, Yellowstone, which was 31, Bozeman, which was 30, Helena, which has 26, Gillette, which boasts 22 and Billings, which is only slightly ahead of Glacier with seven.

Early on Friday night, it appeared that fans inside the Havre Ice Dome would get to enjoy a competitive game as the Quake struck first, but the Nationals answered thanks to a goal from Collin Schieman, which tied the game at 1-1. The Quake did add another goal to make it 2-1 after the first period, but early in the second period, Ronald Robertson found the back of the net to even things up at 2-2.

However, from that point on, it was all Yellowstone. In the final 35 minutes and change in regulation, the Quake scored an astonishing 11 goals. Three of them came from Max Doner, who finished the contest with a hat trick, following a goal in the second and two in the third period. Nicholas Elliot also finished with a hat trick after scoring once in each stanza.

Lance Knudson earned the win for the Quake with 26 saves, while Mikhail Pahrebets got the loss for the Nationals after surrounding seven goals on 42 shots attempted. Raymond Smith also allowed six goals in 27 shots.

On Saturday, in the second game between the two teams in as many days, Yellowstone jumped out to a quick 3-0 advantage in the first period, before Glacier answered with a Robertson goal that made the score 3-1 after 20 minutes of play.

In the second period, the Quake added to their lead with three more goals. The Nationals did respond with a goal of their own by Logan Kraft.

In the final stanza, the Quake added a pair of goals to wrap up their fourth-consecutive win over the Nationals this season. Derrick LaCombe was the winning goaltender for Yellowstone with 23 saves. Pahrebets was stuck with the loss again after surrounding three goals on 17 shots. Smith also played extensively and had 47 saves as well as five goals allowed.

The Nationals will be back in action this Friday when they travel to Great Falls, before returning home Saturday night to host Helena.