Wild sweep Nationals

The Glacier Nationals once again were competitive this past weekend but as they have the past few months, they once again went without a victory.

The Nationals went on the road and took on the Gillette Wild in back-to-back road games and despite grabbing a lead in the first game and playing some solid hockey, they lost to Gillette 7-2 and 7-0 Friday and Saturday night.

In the opening game of the two-game set, the Nationals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the battle of two teams within the Frontier Division of the Tier 3 North American Hockey League. Gavin Cline got the Nationals on the board early and grabbed the lead.

Yet, the lead did not last long as the Wild answered before the end of the first period and tied the game at 1-1. In the second period, they grabbed the lead for the first and went ahead 2-1 on a goal by Riley Holwegner. Glacier did respond with a goal from Colin Schieman to pull the Nationals back to even at 2-2.

However, that was the last goal the Nationals scored and, thanks to two more goals in the second and three more goals in the third period for the Wild, Gillette cruised to victory. Stephen Wroe got the win in net for the Wild with 28 saves, while Kevin Hale stopped just 37 of 44 shots and was hit with the loss.

After losing Friday, the Nationals hoped to rebound Saturday, but in fact, they were beaten even worse. The Wild scored twice in the first period to grab a 2-0 lead. Then, they added four goals in the second period and one in the third to cruise to a 7-0 win.

Wroe got the win again for the Wild, but thanks to a dominating performance by the Wild defense, which allowed the Nationals to get just nine shots on goal. Hale was given the loss for the second straight night, despite notching 47 saves.

The Nationals will attempt to end their lengthy losing streak this Friday against Bozeman. The Nationals will also host Bozeman Saturday. Both games will be inside the Havre Ice Dome and both games will start at 7:30 p.m.