Bighorns skate past Nationals

Following four straight games on the road, the Glacier Nationals of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League were at home this past weekend, taking on the Helena Bighorns. But unfortunately, the results weren't any better.

The two teams, which met inside the Havre Ice Dome, took part in Frontier Division action, but it was Helena that out-skated the Nationals in a 6-2 win Friday night. The Bighorns improved to 6-9-1 on the season with the win, while the Nationals fell to 1-15-1. Glacier is last in the division with three points, four points behind Billings, which is seventh and 10 behind Helena, which is sixth.

The Nationals may have lost by a four-goal margin, but there were some positive aspects of their play, namely a more aggressive offensive attack that generated 63 shots, compared to just 32 for Helena. Yet, in the first period, despite outshooting Helena 23-10, the Nationals fell behind 2-0, thanks to a pair of goals by Bradley Estrada.

However, the Nationals answered at the 12:23 mark of the second period, when Zach Houck scored to trim the lead to 2-1. The Bighorns scored less than a minute later, as Justin Solko found the net, but Brandon Huntington scored with 2:24 left in the second to make the score 3-2 with 20 minutes to play.

Unfortunately, the third period was all about the Bighorns. Helena got just nine shots, compared to 20 for Glacier, but the Bighorns still managed three goals in the stanza as Jarrett Scheibel scored three times for a hat trick. Two of his goals were unassisted.

Alex Kruger got the win in net for Helena, with 61 saves after allowing just two goals on 63 shot attempts. Brendan Schultz got the loss for Glacier after allowing three goals in 23 shots faced. Will Langstaff also saw time between the pipes and allowed two goals and had just one save.

The Nationals will be home for two games this weekend, as they will host the Great Falls Americans Friday night and the Bighorns once again Saturday.