Nationals drop last two

The Glacier Nationals were hoping to put a win on the board during the final two games of the season, but with their opponent, the Helena Big Horns, in the thick of the playoff chase and with plenty to play for, Glacier proved to be no match.

On Friday night in Helena, the two teams met and the Bighorns earned a 6-2 victory, before going to Havre on Saturday and defeating the Nationals 6-1 in Glacier's final game of the season inside the Havre Ice Dome.

With the losses, the Nationals finished the 2015-16 season with a record 2-43-2. Glacier was winless in its final 40 games on the season and ended its campaign on a 31-game losing streak. Yellowstone finished first in the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League with 73 points, Great Falls was second with 70; Bozeman was third with 65 and Gillette was fourth with 54. Helena finished fifth and missed the playoffs with 52 points. Billings was third with 24 points and Glacier was well behind all the other teams with just six points.

On Friday, it looked as long the Nationals might have a chance at ending their lengthy losing skid, after getting goals from Kevin Hale and Collin Schieman to jump out to a 2-0 lead. However, the Nationals surrendered a goal to Jarrett Scheibel to make the score 2-1 at the end of the first period. Then, the Big Horns scored twice in the second period to go ahead 3-2, before adding three more goals in the third to win 6-2.

Helena outshot the Nationals 62-21 in the win. Alex Kruger got the win in net for Helena as he stopped 19 of the 21 shots that he faced. Mikhail Pahrebets was the losing goaltender for the Nationals after allowing four goals in the loss.

After falling to Helena, the Nationals returned to the Ice Dome for the final time this season, but quickly fell behind 2-0 after the Big Horns scored just in the first 11:15 of the game. Wyatt Freitheim did manage to answer with a goal of his own, but Helena tacked on another to lead 3-1 after one period.

Blake Babineau, a former Nationals player, scored in the second period to make it 4-1, then goals from Bradley Estrada in the second and John Heddle in the third period, gave Helena the 6-1 win.

Adam Ranck was the winner in net for Helena, stopping 35 of the 36 shots that came his way. Pahrebets was again the loser for the Nationals, allowing two goals in 12 shots in the first period before giving way to Kevin Hale, who allowed four goals on 48 shots the rest of the way.