Nationals lose close home games to Bozeman

The Glacier Nationals had another good chance to find the winner’s circle last week against the Bozeman Ice Dogs, but in back-to-back home games Thursday and Friday they fell twice by the scores of 3-2 and 7-2.

With those losses, the Nationals, who have not won since October, had their winless streak extended to beyond 30 games. They have just five games left in the 2015-16 campaign.

The first of the two games took place last Thursday inside the Havre Ice Dome and early on, the Nationals looked like they had what it took to knock off their rival from the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League.

After a scoreless first period, the Nationals took their first and only lead of the night when Collin Schieman scored 1:56 into the second period to put Glacier in front 1-0. Yet, the lead lasted all of 52 seconds. From there, the Ice Dogs scored three goals in the next 2:30 to build a 3-1 advantage.

The Nationals did manage to score another goal before the end of the period as Logan Kraft beat Ice Dogs’ goalie Benjamin Sakaria to make the score 3-2. But, in the end, the Nationals were unable to tie the score and ultimately ended up losing by one.

Sakaria earned the win for the Ice Dogs by stopping 33 of the 35 shots he faced. Mikhail Pahrebets was given the loss for Glacier by allowing three goals, even though he did finish the game with 38 points.

The second game between the two teams came Friday and this time around the Ice Dogs wasted no time taking advantage of a porous Glacier defense as they scored four goals in the first period and three more in the second to take a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Nationals did find a way to score twice in the third period as Kraft found the back of the net for the second straight game and Tim Van Tulnen scored his first goal of the season.

Josh Ayock got the win in net for the Ice Dogs with 34 saves and just two goals allowed. Raymond Smith was given the loss after stopping just 22 of 29 shots he faced. Hale came on in relief and played well, turning away all 17 shots fired at him.

The Nationals will be back in action this week, when they hit the road to take on the Yellowstone Quake Friday and Saturday.