Nationals take out Americans

A big goal of the Glacier Nationals as they play out the home stretch of their 2014-15 schedule was to finish the season strong. And after they upset the mighty Great Falls Americans on the road for the second time this season Saturday, they appear to be doing exactly that.

Yet, the Nationals’ late season momentum is about more than their 2-1 victory over Great Falls. The win was their third consecutive on the road and marks Glacier’s first three-game winning streak of the season.

Glacier improved to 9-25-5 on the season, which is good enough to hold down fifth place in the Frontier Division standings with a total of 23 points. The win over the Americans comes on the heels of a two-game sweep on the road of the Yellowstone Quake on Jan. 23 and Jan. 24.

One player that has played consistently well for the Nationals this season has been goaltender Ryan Lund and he did so again Saturday. In fact, he didn’t just play well, he played spectacular.

For three periods, the Americans bombarded Lund and the Nationals’ defense with shots on goal. By the end of the game, the total number of shots on goal for Great Falls ended up at 66. Of those 66 shots, Lund stopped 65.

However, Glacier managed just 16 shots in the game, which made scoring goals difficult. But, with the score tied up at zero at the 6:58 mark in the third period, Matt Gamblin finally broke through beating Great Falls goalie Jordan Morgan for a goal to give the Nationals a slim 1-0 edge.

Then following a penalty on the Americans, Glacier found the back of the net again just 1:27 later when Joshua Larson scored a power play goal, thanks in part to the assist from Tommy Kaddatz, and the Nationals led 2-0 with 5:21 to play.

From there, Lund made the lead stick. The Americans would finally get on the board in the final minute of the game when Robert Kalata scored with 28 seconds remaining to get Great Falls within one at 2-1.

But in the end, it proved to be too late. Lund earned the win with his stellar 65 save performance, while Morgan was hit with the loss after stopping just 14 of 16 shots.

The two teams will face each other again this Friday in a rematch inside the Havre Ice Dome. Not only will the Nationals be looking for their third win over first-place Great Falls, they will also be attempting to win a fourth straight game for the first time this season.