Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team Splits Series At Helena; Return Home To Take On Gillette And Cody

Each team won a battle this past weekend on the ice, but the war is not over.

The Sheridan Hawks Junior Hockey Team split games at Helena, thus nothing was settled in the standings, and the team remain in 1st place in the NA3HL’s Frontier Division by 2 points, with 8 games remaining in the regular season.

Head Coach J.J. Santagata says getting the road split is good, but if only the Achilles Heel for Sheridan would stop happening.

“The consistency is just not there. I mean we’re going into Game 39, we’re many months, many weeks into the year and we just still can not shrink together consistency. You never want to blame one thing like we didn’t get any calls going our way Saturday, a lot of soft calls, a lot of things that probably shouldn’t have been called, the PK’s got to be better. We have to be better 5-on-5. It’s a hard place to play, it’s very energetic. It’s obviously a 1 vs. 2 game and I just didn’t think we came out at all on Saturday.”

Sheridan does have to play at Helena one more time next week.

Until then, the Hawks are at home this weekend to take on Gillette on Friday and Cody on Saturday.

The puck drops both nights at 7:30pm.

One win this weekend will clinch a playoff spot.

The top 4 teams qualify for the post season.

Gillette is currently in 6th place and trail Rapid City by 6 points in the standings, with 1 month to go in the regular season.

Cody is in 7th place, and their playoff hopes are hanging on by a thread.

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Weekend Recap: (Courtesy: Sheridan Hawks)

The top two teams in the Frontier Division went head to head this past weekend as the #1 Sheridan Hawks went on the road to take on the #2 Helena Bighorns.

Friday night, in the opening period, the Hawks would strike first with a goal from Jeff Slivon, Max Krueger and Jameson Clark getting the assist.

The Hawks would then extend their lead to 2 with a goal from Easton Langemo, being assisted by Dante Hunziker and Charles Stow.

In the second period the Hawks took a 5 minute major which allowed the Bighorns to make up and more on their scoring deficit. 

Helena would get on the board to start with two power play goals to tie it up. 

Soon after that the Bighorns would take the lead on yet another power play goal during the long Hawks’ penalty kill to close out the second frame. 

In the final period the Hawks would answer back to tie the game with a goal from Easton Langemo, his second of the game, Vincent Leaf getting the assist.

To give the Hawks the win, Jameson Clark would knock one in, Max Krueger and Lucas Paliwodzinski picking up the assist.

The Hawks won the thriller over the Bighorns 4-3. 

TJ Wonnacott stopped 29 of 32 shots in the win.

Saturday night didn’t go as hoped for the Sheridan Hawks, who just could never get much offensive steam throughout the match. 

In the opening period the Bighorns would take an early lead on a power play goal 5 and a half minutes after the starting puck drop.

The Hawks would then get on the board with a power play goal of their own, Elijah Farris scoring with an assist from Easton Langemo and Elijah White to take it into the first intermission tied up 1-1.

In the second period the Bighorns would take the lead back with second power play goal and go on to score on another power play goal to end the frame two goals up. 

In the final period the Bighorns would keep extending their lead with their first and only even strength goal of the weekend before adding to their lead with on more in the net during a Hawks penalty kill. 

With just 3 minutes left the Hawks would finally get back on the board with a power play goal of their own from Caden Gleason, Deagan Watson and Jeff Slivon with the assist, but in the end it wasn’t enough and the Bighorns defeat the Hawks 5-2. 

The Hawks were out shot on this one (31 SOG Helena to 24 SOG Hawks) compared to the previous evening (32 SOG Helena vs 40 SOG Hawks).

Despite the split weekend the Hawks remain the top seed in the division with 55 points. 

Helena stays in 2nd with 53 points, followed by Great Falls (46 pts), Badlands Sabres (42) with the Bozeman Icedogs (38) and Gillette Wild (36) all battling for play off slots and positions.

The Hawks are on home ice this next weekend coming up when they host the Gillette Wild on Friday night and the Yellowstone Quake on Saturday evening.