Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team Sweep Games At Cody; Prepare For Home Showdown Vs. Defending Champ Helena

The Sheridan Hawks are playoff bound, and have a chance this weekend to secure a good spot in the bracket at home, arguably against the team to beat.

The top 4 teams in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division advance to the postseason, and with their 2 wins this past weekend at Cody, Sheridan has assured themselves of being in the top 4.

The Hawks can lock down the #2 seed with 2 wins this weekend, but standing in their way is defending NA3HL champ Helena, who has already secured the #1 seed, and are in town for games this Friday and Saturday.

These 2 games are also the last 2 home games of the regular season for Sheridan.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says throughout the season, there have been times when the Hawks have played to the level of their opponent, but when it comes to playing the Bighorns, the players know it’s time to step their game up.

“I feel like that’s been kind of our issue this year is, we take some teams a little bit too lightly, and we come out a little flat and then we start down and then we got to play catchup all game. We played this team (Helena) months ago and every time we play this team, the guys will know the magnitude of the game. You’re playing a team that’s extremely good, so you got to clean up your game or they’re going to come back and they’re going to make your mistakes count in the back of our net, so every time we play this team, I feel like our intensity, our compete level raises a little bit more. I wish it was like that for the other teams in our division, but I think we’ve done a good job of reigning it in, maybe 20 minutes we’ve had a bad period or so, but I feel like we’ve done a good job all year of just, picking up the urgency and the intensity, no matter who we’re playing.”

Sheridan played at Helena back in October and lost both games by 1 goal each.

The puck is scheduled to drop this Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm.

Hawks at Cody Recap: (Courtesy: Sheridan Hawks)

The Hawks came home from Cody with two wins under their belts, keeping them as 2nd seed in the standings running up to the playoffs. 

Multiple hat tricks and outshooting the Yellowstone Quake 86-19 saw the Sheridan Hawks dominate Friday night.

In the first five minutes, the Hawks ran with an early 2-0 lead, Kiefer Dunham and Logan Sidlauskas with the first and second goals, respectively.

Vincent Leaf late in the period with two power play goals gave the Hawks a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Three more Hawks goals in the second period from Zach Longnecker, Deagan Watson and Josh Serino would raise the lead until the Quake first scored at 14:33.

Longnecker would cap off the period with his second of the game.

The final period has seven straight Hawks goals. Ernest Allen, Derrek Laite, Dunham, and Watson all scored within the first four minutes, Kadin Edwards following at 8:45 in the period.

The last two Hawks goals from Leaf and Watson secured their hat tricks, and the Quake got the last score with under three minutes left in the game ending a forgettable night for the Quake. 

It was a big night for defenseman Deagan Watson who not only scored his first goal in the NA3HL and as a Hawk, but as noted earlier, notched his first ever NA3HL hat trick as well.

The Sheridan Hawks completed the road game sweep of the Yellowstone Quake on Saturday, outshooting the Quake 40-16.

Josh Serino scored the lone goal of the first period for the Hawks, with Vincent Leaf extending that lead midway in the second period.

The Quake’s only goal came at 15:25 into the period. 

The Hawks would end the period with a 3-1 lead however after Vlad Zubriichuk scored with 18 seconds left in regulation.

The third period further entrenched the Hawks lead, with three goals in the first ten minutes.

Cody Hogan struck first, followed by Leaf for his second of the night.

Daniel Shelden ended the scoring at 7:12 into the period, ending the night for a Hawks victory.

The Hawks are on home ice this weekend as they take on the Frontier Division top seed Helena Bighorns. 

Right now the Hawks remain the 2nd seed in the division standings in the run up to the play offs. 

But the competition is tight, with the #3 Great Falls Americans trailing by only one point, the #4 Badlands Sabres by only two points and the 5th place Bozeman Icedogs still in the running for  a playoff spot as well.