Sheridan Hawks Split Road Games Vs. Bozeman And Have 2 Players Get Called Up

The Sheridan Hawks hockey team is currently in 2nd place in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division, and teams in other leagues are beginning to take notice.

Second year veteran Sean Harris and rookie Vincent Leaf were recently called up to play for the Amarillo Wranglers in the NA2HL.

Leaf led Sheridan in assists with 20, and in team points with 31, while Harris has been used mostly for defense.

Hawks Head Coach J.J. Santagata says in this league, that’s the nature of this business and while he tries to coach the team so they can win games, seeing players get called up means something’s going right.

“Vincent is obviously a good player and our goal for him is to get him as many looks as we can to the NA, because obviously he has the talent and the skill, it’s just a matter of a team giving him a chance, so it’s a big opportunity for him and same thing with Sean, 2 year guy, he skated with the (Colorado) Grit last year, now he’s skating with Amarillo. Two guys that have earned it and they’ve done really well in their time here.”

As for this past weekend, Sheridan split games at Bozeman winning 4-3 on Friday and losing on Saturday 4-1.

Santagata says as far as Saturday’s game goes, the Hawks were doing everything right, but they couldn’t catch a break.

“We’d kill a 5 minute penalty, then we’d kill another 2 minute penalty right after that, so special teams penalty kill was great and then the flip side of that, we had 5 power plays we couldn’t just do anything with it. Our effort, our execution was there, we just couldn’t get a bounce that could go our way. The guys did well and missing one of our top guys, they responded well, everyone chipped in and did their job. You want 4 points on the weekend, but at the end of the day, we’re 18 games into the year and we’ve haven’t gotten a weekend without getting a point or 2, or 3.”

Sheridan is at home this weekend for 2 games vs. Cody.

The puck drops both nights at 7:30.

The opposition went winless in 47 tries last season and so far, history is repeating itself after 18 tries this season.

Hawks at Bozeman Recap: (Courtesy Sheridan Hawks)

Friday night gave fans an incredibly exciting competitive game with the Hawks fighting to keep within a goal or tied the first two periods, but ultimately, Sheridan took the first game of the series against the Bozeman Icedogs.

The home team struck first with a power play goal from Lex Steckelberg for his eighth of the season.

Down 1-0 to begin the second period, the Hawks tied the game from an unassisted goal by Vincent Leaf, propelling himself into the top five in league scoring with his eleventh goal of the season.

The Icedogs didn’t falter, regaining the lead a few minutes after with their second of the night, but the lead lasted less than a minute.

Hawks rookie defenseman Charles Stow scored his first goal of the season and first NA3HL goal to tie the game once again, assisted by Leaf and Zach Longnecker.

In the final two minutes of the second period, Icedogs leading goal scorer Devin Bruns gave his team the lead for the third time of the game to end the period.

Entering the third period down 3-2, the Hawks relied on their top goal scorer Josh Serino, who scored goal his 16th of the season in the first two minutes, with help from Leaf’s second assist and Logan Hume.

Elijah White in the middle of the 3rd period potted the final goal to give the Hawks their first lead of the game, and ultimately the winning goal. 

White’s game clincher was with the assist of Hume and Serino. 

Hawks netminder John Simon had 30 saves on 33 shots on net for the win.

Saturday saw the Hawks go to a loss after a strong start. 

Despite a solid first period performance, outshooting Bozeman 13-8, the Hawks ended the period down 2-1.

After successfully killing a five-minute major, the Hawks were hit with an additional two minutes for delay of game with a controversial call from the referee. 

It appeared that the officials did not put a Hawks player in the penalty box after the game ejection of Vincent Leaf on the major, and after the resumption of 5-on-5 play noticed their mistake, whistled a stoppage in play with the Hawks on an odd man rush in the Bozeman end, and assessed another penalty on Sheridan, taking the wind out of their sails following the successful 5 minute penalty kill. 

Sheridan had a much worse second period as they managed just four shots on goal.

Bozeman scored two more goals, one in the second and another in the third to secure a 4-1 win on home ice, despite a Hawk’s resurgence in the third where they outshot the Icedogs by 30%.

The Hawks return to home ice this weekend, Nov 15 & 16 when they take on the Yellowstone Quake. 

It is also the team’s Military Appreciation Weekend in honor of Veteran’s Day with free admission for current and active military with ID and a special Military Appreciation jersey. 

These game worn jerseys will be auctioned (Click here) with proceeds to be shared with the Wyo West Warrior Foundation, a local Sheridan organization that supports veterans with events designed to promote healing and camaraderie.