Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team Beat Great Falls And Butte Ahead Of Early Season Battle Vs. Helena

After a 1-3 start to the season, the Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team is on a roll, and are preparing for a big test at home this weekend.

This past weekend, the team won at home vs. Great Falls 7-1 and against Butte 10-1.

Sheridan is now on an 8-game win streak, outscoring opponents 52-8 in the process, and have moved up to 1st place in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division.

This weekend is a battle for 1st place as Helena comes to town for 2 games.

The Bighorns are the 2-time defending Frontier Division champs and Hawks Head Coach J.J. Santagata says his team is looking forward to going up against a style of play that they have not yet seen this season.

“This is a team that transitions really well. I feel like we haven’t played a great transitional team, so we’ve forced them to basically play against our transition and we’ve been able to push a little bit more pace of play here and play the style of hockey we want to play, so this team, they’re a good transitional team. They break out pucks very well and controlled. They do a great job of zone entries, they do a good job in the rush, so this is a team where everything for us is going to have to be extremely dialed in, extremely detailed oriented, very urgent, all facets of our game, so it’s going to be a great test for us.”

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

This weekend is also the Hawks annual Hawks Hockey Fights Cancer weekend.  

The players will wear special Cancer Awareness jerseys which will be auctioned off afterwards.

All proceeds will go to the Welch Cancer Center.

Weekend Recap: (Courtesy: Sheridan Hawks)

The Sheridan Hawks started with a dominating win while hosting the Great Falls Americans on Friday.

The Hawks struck first with a goal at 14:39 by Charles Stow, his first this season, assisted by Deagan Watson.

Later on, the Hawks added another with just over four minutes left in the first with an unassisted goal by Dean Schlarman, his first goal as a Sheridan Hawk and first NA3HL goal.

The Americans struck back in the first few minutes of the second period with a goal by Logan Mese.

The Hawks did not let up however, adding on three more goals, with two by Jameson Clark and one power play goal by Deagan Watson assisted by Max Krueger.

The Hawks took a 5-1 lead into the start of the last period.

In the third, the Hawks took advantage of power plays tacking on two more goals to their already lengthy lead.

Vincent Leaf found the back of the net at 14:53 and Jeff Slivon, assisted by Leaf, scored the last of the game at 9:21.

The Hawks dominated with 42-29 SOG differential and a 7-1 win.

On Saturday, the Hawks hosted the Butte Irish in a high scoring and physical contest culminating in another decisive Sheridan victory.

Shots on goal favored the Hawks 70-20 resulting in a 10-1 Hawks win.

The Hawks struck first at 15:56 on the power play when Dante Hunziker found the back of the net, assisted by Leaf and White.

The Irish would respond two minutes later also on the power play with a goal by Easton Langemo, assisted by Weber.

A slew of four Hawks goals ensued in the next seven minutes, goals by Dante Hunziker, two Jeff Slivon, and one by Deagan Watson.

The Hawks would have a 5-1 lead after one.

The scoring and the clock slowed down in the very physical second period which saw 23 penalties and six players sent to the locker rooms for game misconducts, four of whom were Irishmen.

The lone goal in the second was delivered by Jeff Slivon, completing his first NA3HL hat trick on the 5 on 3 power play.

In the third, four more Hawks goals were scored by Jeff Slivon, Max Krueger, Elijah White, and Dante Hunziker completing a hat trick of his own.

The Hawks would reign victorious 10-1 over the Irish.

Next weekend the Sheridan Hawks are at home once again to take on the #2 ranked Helena Bighorns. 

It will be the Hawks annual Hawks Hockey Fights Cancer weekend. 

The players will wear special Cancer Awareness jerseys which will be auctioned off at www.32auctions.com/pinkrink32. 

All proceeds will go to the Welch Cancer Center.