Nationals struggle at Minnesota Showcase

It was an exciting weekend of hockey for the Glacier Nationals as they made the long trip to Minnesota to play in the North American Tier 3 Hockey League Showcase.

The showcase, which is designed to get the players in the league greater exposure, was held in Blaine, Minnesota. It started Thursday and was completed Saturday, with team getting to play three games.

The Nationals, who played teams from across the country, lost all three of their games. Glacier fell to Sugar Land, Texas, 9-1 Thursday, Cincinnati 6-2 Friday and 10-1 to Pittsburgh Saturday.

In the opening game of the showcase for the Nationals, they got behind the 8-ball early against Sugar Land, which scored four goals in the opening period. The Nationals did get a goal from William Bostwick, which made the score 4-1 at the end of the first. Yet, Sugar Land added three goals in the second period and two more in the third period to come away with the eight-goal win. Raymond Smith got the loss in net for Glacier after allowing nine goals on 37 shot attempts.

On Friday, the Nationals turned their attention to Cincinnati and played much more respectably. The Thunder did jump out to a 3-0 advantage at the end of the first period, but the Nationals scored twice in the second period, with one goal coming from Wyatt Fretheim and the other coming from Bostwick.

Yet, before the second was over, the Thunder tacked on a goal to make the score 4-2, then found the back of the net twice more in the third period, which wrapped up the 6-2 victory. Kevin Hale was in net for Glacier and got the loss after giving up six goals and facing 43 shots.

Before heading back to Havre, the Nationals played one last game, against the Pittsburgh Vengeance. The game was all Pittsburgh. The Vengeance scored twice in the first period, five times in the second period and three times in the third. Seven different skaters scored for Pittsburgh, while Collin Schieman was the only Nationals' player to score, doing so in the second to prevent the Nationals from being shut out.

Mikhail Pahrebets was given the loss after stopping just 20 of 27 shot attempts. Raymond Smith also saw time in net during the third period and gave up three goals on 11 shots.

With the three losses, the Nationals are now 2-23-2 on the season and are in the midst of a 19-game winless streak. They are currently last in the Frontier Division standings, trailing Great Falls, which has 40, Yellowstone with 37, Bozeman with 36, Helena with 32, Gillette with 28 and Billings with nine.

The Nationals will have a couple weeks off for the holidays and will be back on the ice Jan. 1, when they will pay a visit to the Helena Big Horns.