Americans skate by Nationals

In one of their final home games of the season, the Glacier Nationals played host to the Great Falls Americans Friday night and once again lost to one of the top teams in the Frontier division in decisive fashion.

The two teams met inside the Havre Ice Dome and when it was all said and done, the Americans trampled the Nationals 10-1.

The game was close in the first period and the Americans led just 1-0 at the end of the first period. In the second, the Americans added to their lead. With the score 2-0, the Nationals got on the board, as Tim Vantinen scored to make it 2-1 in favor of Great Falls. However, the Americans added three more goals and led 5-1 after two periods of play.

In the third period, the Americans scored five more times, two were from Danny O’Donnell. The others were from Tegan Harrington and Tanner Congdon, who each scored in the first period as well. Great Falls outshot the Nationals 93-9, including a 33-0 effort in the third.

Kyler Ayers got the win for the Americans, stopping eight of the nine shots he faced. Will Langstaff got the loss for the Nationals, after allowing nine goals on 70 shot attempts. Brendan Schultz faced 23 shots and saved 22 of them.

Great Falls is now 35-3-2 on the regular season and has a total of 75 points, which is good for second place in the Frontier. The Nationals, on the other hand, are now 2-40-1 and sit in last place with five points.

Glacier has four games left on the schedule with three of them coming at home. They will be back in action this weekend with back-to-back games against the Yellowstone Quake Friday and Saturday. The first puck will drop at 8 p.m. Friday. The start time for Saturday will be 7:30 p.m.