Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team Splits Road Trip Vs. Great Falls and Butte; Return Home To Face Bozeman and Helena

The Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team remains on top of the NA3HL’s Frontier Division standings and the team is going to try to enjoy the comforts of home for the next few weeks.

The Hawks split road games this past weekend, losing at Great Falls 3-1, but recovered to win at Butte 5-2.

About one-third of the way through the season, the team has an overall record of 11-5 which includes one shootout loss.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says Sheridan is right about where he expected them to be, 2 months into the season.

“We’re actually kind of at the same point we were 16 games into the year, last year. Kind of same situation. Would we expect more out this group? Probably. You’re looking at some games that we dropped already this year. Badlands twice, at the beginning of the year, Gillette in a shootout, so we want those games back probably, but we’ve just got to make every opportunity, every game count here. Just one game at a time, one weekend at a time, just kind of go from there.”

The Hawks are scheduled to play the next 8 games at home starting tomorrow vs. Bozeman, which is the only Frontier Division team they have not yet played.

The Icedogs started the season 8-1, but have since dropped 6 straight.

On Saturday, Helena makes a return visit.

The puck drops in both games this weekend at 7:30pm.

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Weekend Recap: (Courtesy: Sheridan Hawks)

The Great Falls Americans hosted the division-leading Sheridan Hawks in a Friday night matchup that started with a scoreless first period.

The Hawks looked to get a lead at the end of the first with what appeared to be a goal at a crowded net front, but the officials ended up waving that off after initially awarding the point. 

In the second, Americans’ Keifer Lundmark made sure the visiting Hawks did not get too comfortable, taking the puck through some heavy traffic to get the Americans on the board first.

Less than a minute later, the hometown team found the back of the Hawks’ net again to extend the lead, sending the Americans into the third period with a 2-0 advantage.

The Americans would then finish off their scoring for the night with a power-play goal.

Sheridan answered back with a lone goal from Derrek Laite, with less than five minutes left in the game, but the effort came too late.   

Kaden Rhyder manned the crease for Great Falls making a total of 49 saves to secure the Americans’ 3-1 victory. 

TJ Wonnacott, in the net for Sheridan, had a decent 28 saves on 31 shots.

The next day the Hawks loaded the bus and headed for Butte, MT, where the Irish hosted Sheridan in a lively Saturday night matchup.

The Irish grabbed an early start getting on the board, finding the back of Sheridan’s net 10 seconds after the starting face off. 

In the second period, Jameson Clark and Jeff Slivon scored for Sheridan, giving them a 2-1 lead, before the Irish popped in a power play goal to even it up once again.

That was it though for goals from the Butte team. 

Max Krueger restored Sheridan’s lead with two back-to-back goals in the final twenty minutes before Vincent Leaf capped off the night.

Both teams generated plenty of scoring chances, the Hawks outshot the Irish 49-40, but it was Sheridan’s strong effort in the third that secured the 5-2 win. 

Sheridan goalie Otto Reinhart had a solid night with 38 saves on the 40 shots faced.

Next weekend the Hawks play at home, taking on the Bozeman Icedogs on Halloween night and then the top two teams in the division meet up Saturday night as #1 Sheridan hosts the #2 Helena Bighorns. 

Gates open at 6:30 PM and the games start at 7:30 PM. 

Friday night is costume night at the rink and there is a free open skate with the Hawks to follow the game.