Sheridan Hawks Hockey Team Drops Both Games At Helena; Prepare For Trip To Butte

The Sheridan Hawks Junior League Hockey Team dropped both games on the road this past weekend against defending Frasier Cup Champ Helena, but they were both 1-goal contests.

Friday’s score was 1-0 and Saturday’s score was 4-3 in overtime.

In Friday’s game, the opposition had 49 shots on goal and the only one that got through was on a power play.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says the past 2 weekends the goalie play has been phenomenal and that’s kept the Hawks in some games.

“We have 2 extremely talented goalies in TJ (Wonnacott) and (John) Simon and they’ve really helped us out, especially like 2 weekends ago, when we played Great Falls, that game that we won 4-2, I think Great Falls outshot us 50-30, or whatever it was, and that’s a testament to John and Saturday night, TJ faced 45-plus shots and we walk away with a 1-goal loss in overtime, so we get a point out of it and every good team has a good goalie and it’s a testament to their character, how hard they work and how prepared they come every single night.”

There’s 2 teams left in the Frontier Division that Sheridan has not yet played and one of those 2 are on the schedule for this weekend.

The Hawks visit Butte who is currently in 7th place out of the 8 teams in the division.

Santagata adds the Irish have had a decent amount of success the past few seasons, and although their record doesn’t show it, the team is better than what their record indicates.

“Every single year that I’ve been here, Butte has been an extremely hard, physical, heavy team. They’re relentless, they play hard, they play heavy and they never give up, so that’s what we’re going to expect Friday and Saturday night. We know what they’re capable of and they do a good job on their power play and special teams, so we know we’re going to have to just stay out of the box and just basically play the same hockey that we did this weekend. Hopefully we just walk away with a couple more bounces going our way.”

The puck drops on both Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm.

Sheridan will be back at home next weekend vs. Rapid City.

Hawks at Helena Recap: (Courtesy Sheridan Hawks)

The Sheridan Hawks and Helena Bighorns went head-to-head in a battle between the top two teams in the Frontier on Friday night.

Both teams entered with only one loss in regulation, and over seven wins each.

The sole goal of the matchup that kept fans on the edge of their seats came off a Helena power play in the 2nd period. 

Hawks goaltender John Simon blocked almost 50 shots in Friday’s matchup, stopping 48 of 49 shots faced.

The following evening proved to be just as exciting, going to overtime before the outcome was determined. 

The Bighorns struck first with a goal in the middle of the first period. 

They followed that up with two more at the start of the second to move ahead to a three-point lead. 

But the Hawks would storm back, as just 17 seconds after the third Helena goal Josh Serino cut the lead back to two for Sheridan, with and assist from Vincent Leaf, and with just over four to go, Vincent Leaf would cut the lead to one with the assist from Zach Longnecker. 

To end the period with momentum, Kiefer Dunham would beat the buzzer on the powerplay to send the game to the second intermission deadlocked at three goals apiece. 

Serino had the assist on that one. 

The third would bring many opportunities for both teams but went scoreless with 11 saves for TJ Wonnacott to send the game to overtime. 

Unfortunately for the Hawks, the three-on-three OT ended with a stolen pass and a one on none opportunity that ended in the game winning goal for the Bighorns. 

Wonnacott would tally 41 saves in the loss.

The Hawks head to Butte, MT next weekend to face the Irish in their next two game road series. 

The following weekend, Oct 25-26 the Hawks will be back on home ice when they host the Badlands Sabres.