Glacier starts with a back-to-back against Great Falls

Festival Days is always a fun time around Havre and it’s especially fun for those who love attending local sporting events. In addition to the football and volleyball going on this weekend, there will also be junior hockey, as the Glacier Nationals open their 2016-17 season.

The Nationals, who belong to the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League, will begin their third season in Havre Friday night, with their first game of the season on the road in Great Falls. That game will start at 8 p.m.

Saturday night, the Nationals will return to Havre for their home-opener, which will be against Great Falls inside the Havre Ice Dome. The first puck will drop at 7:30 p.m.

While both teams will have a mixture of new and old faces, Butch Kowalka, the general manager of the Nationals, said his team taking part in a preseason tournament in Canada will give them a leg up early in the season.

“I think one advantage we have is that we have already played,” Kowalka said. “You can practice all you want, but you can’t replace a game. Great Falls didn’t play any preseason games, so I think that gives us a little bit of an advantage. I also think teams might be taking us a little lightly. Our guys are ready, we have been on the ice and practicing. You kind of get a feel right away for where they’re at. Our skill guys are buying in right away and there is no team within our division that we can’t beat. So that’s kind of our attitude going in, we can win anywhere.”

One issue Glacier had last year was scoring goals. But this year, the Nationals will be relying on front-line players such as Brandon Huntington, who scored five times last season. He will be joined by fellow forwards Gavin Cline and Wyatt Mattfeldt. On the defensive end of the ice, Glacier will be led by Grant Denton and Brendan Echelbarger, as well as goalie Misha Pahrebets.

The Americans, who were the top team in the Frontier a season ago, will provide a tough early-season test for the Nationals, who are trying to show that they are better than their last-place finish of a season ago.

“Great Falls has been a good, consistent team,” Kowalka said. “They are a good team every year, but after that our next 10 games are all against teams that we skated well against in previous years, so we like our schedule. We have some challenges right out of the gate, but hopefully we can do well, getting off to a fast start is really important, and I like our schedule and an opportunity to do that there.”

The Nationals will have plenty of chances to play in front of their hometown fans early in the season, as after the trip to Great Falls Friday, they will play three straight home games. The first will be Saturday against the Americans. The other two games will be part of a back-to-back against Gillette, which the Nationals will host Sept. 23- 24.