Sheridan Hawks Split Games At Great Falls; Return Home To Play 2 Vs. Cody

The Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team have reached the halfway point of their regular season schedule and now they’re going to tune up for some non-Frontier Division opponents that they’ll play later this month.

This past weekend the team split games at Great Falls, losing on Friday 3-2, and winning on Saturday 4-2.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says Sheridan was not at 100%, and it was a good opportunity for bench players to get playing time against a Great Falls team that’s been trying to pass them in the standings for 2nd place.

“Friday night, out a couple of top guys, top 6 guys and guys still played really well, so that was a good confidence booster for a lot of our guys that were against a lineup that hadn’t been in there and then you walk away with a win on Saturday night and secure 2nd place for Showcase now, so we’re going to be playing a lot of good hockey during the Showcase. Playing in 2nd place for awhile now, so can’t really be too disappointed. Still got to cleanup a little bit of details of things like d-zone and just a little bit better of rush entry chances, so overall, it’s been a good start to the year so far.”

Sheridan will host winless Cody this Friday and Saturday starting at 7:30pm on both days.

After that, the team will prepare for the NA3HL’s Showcase Event in Blaine, Minnesota December 15th-17th.

The team will continue on without Zack Longnecker who was recently called up to the Minnesota Mallards (Forest Lake, MN) in the NA2HL.

Hawks at Great Falls Recap: (Courtesy: Sheridan Hawks)

In what was a closely battled game between Frontier Division second seed Sheridan and third seed Great Falls the Americans came away with a 3-2 victory and moved within a point of Sheridan in the standings.

Great Falls struck first with a goal five minutes into the game. 

Sheridan replied later in the period to tie it up going into the intermission with a power play goal from Elijah White, assisted by Josh Serino and Kiefer Dunham. 

After trading goals in the opening period, Great Falls once gained the lead in the second, but Gavin Elliott evened the score once more just a few minutes later with help from Derek Laite and White.

Exactly one minute later, on a Sheridan penalty kill, Great Falls scored what would prove to be the game winner as the third period went scoreless and ended with the Hawks down by one.

Sheridan goaltender TJ Wonnacott was busy all night as he finished with 49 saves.

Saturday though was a different story as the Hawks came back to take the game and maintain their lead in the division. 

Vlad Zubriichuk started things off this time a few minutes into the first, the only goal of that period. 

He was assisted by Ernest Allen and Sean Harris. 

The second period was high scoring though, with the Hawks and the Americans both netting two goals each. 

Zach Longnecker added to the Hawks lead assisted by Vincent Leaf and Tyler Kemp to move the team up by 2. 

The Americans narrowed the gap a few minutes later, only to see Dunham, with help from Elijah Farris sand Danny Shelden, make it a 2 point game once again. 

However, shortly thereafter, Great Falls potted a goal to bring things back to a one point differential to end the second. 

In the third, Leaf put the Hawks back up to end the game 4-2 for the Sheridan win, assisted by White and Logan Hume. 

TJ Wonnacott had another solid performance, with 48 saves.