Ice Hawks sweep Americans in Great Falls

The Havre Ice Hawks high school hockey team did not get off to the best start this season with two losses against the Bozeman Icedogs last weekend. But the Ice Hawks were able to put that behind them this past weekend as they defeated the Great Falls Americans on the road by scores of 5-2 Saturday and 7-1 Sunday.

“The team did really well coming off of the two losses,” head coach Chase Hanson said. “Team play really stepped up this weekend.”

The Ice Hawks started the weekend with a 5-2 victory over the Americans Saturday. It took a while for either team to score but 16:59 into the first period, Ciaran Courtnage scored a goal to give Havre the 1-0 lead. But a minute into the second period, Westin Weisenburger scored for the Americans to tie the game.

About five minutes later in the game, Michael Emge scored to give Havre the 2-1 lead. Another five minutes later, Kaine Black scored for the Hawks to extend the lead to 3-1. But in the final minutes of the second period, Ian Gunn scored a goal for the Americans to cut Havre’s lead to 3-2 heading to the third.

The Ice Hawks were able to pull away for the victory in the final period. Just over a minute into the period, Jared Rosgaard scored to make it 4-2. In the final minutes of the period, Black scored his second goal of the game to give the Hawks a 5-2 victory and their first win of the season.

On Sunday, the Ice Hawks defeated the Americans, 7-1, to improve to 2-2 early in the season. The Ice Hawks got off to a quick start with a goal from Trayden Riley just under two minutes into the game. Five minutes later, Rhett Wertheheimer scored to extend the lead to 2-0. The Ice Hawks kept the offensive momentum going in the second period with a goal from Austin Boyce.

Then, 30 seconds into the third period, Boyce scored on a power play to make it 4-0. After the Americans scored a goal, Boyce scored again for his third goal of the day. In the final minutes of the game, Jacob Herring and Stephen Preputin scored to hand Havre a 7-1 victory.

Boyce finished the weekend with three goals and an assist. Along with his goal, Herring led the team with three assists over the course of the weekend. Courtnage, Michael Emge and Tavish McLean also recorded two assists each over the weekend. Goalie Clara Holland recorded a save percentage of .869 over the weekend and only allowed three goals.

With the wins over Great Falls, Hanson hopes his team can use them as a jumping point for the rest of the season. In the second win over Great Falls, the Ice Hawks used the final moments of the game to experiment as they prepare for tougher opponents ahead.

“Going into some tougher games, we want to find something that we haven’t used in the past to try and find it today and keep building off the momentum we gathered,” Hanson said.

The Ice Hawks will next play at home at the Havre Ice Dome Dec. 11-12 against the Flathead Fusion.