Nationals play Bulls twice

The Glacier Nationals are fresh off their second win of the season and this weekend, they welcome the Billings Bulls into the Havre Ice Dome as they search for their first back-to-back wins of the season.

The Nationals and Bulls split a pair of games in Sidney two weeks ago and will play two more games in Havre tonight and Saturday. Tonight's game will start at 8 p.m. Saturday's contest will see the first puck drop at 7:30 p.m.

The two teams, which play in the Frontier Division of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League, are both in desperate need of points to avoid falling back in the playoff race. The Frontier has a few teams such as Great Falls, Gillette, Yellowstone and Bozeman, which have emerged to start the season. But the Nationals, who have five points so far this season and the Bulls, who have two, still have time to put themselves in the thick of the playoff race.

Glacier, which was winless in its first five games of the season, has come on strong recently with a 2-2 record in its last four games. One of those wins came over Billings two weeks ago, while the other came last weekend when the Nationals defeated Gillette, the third-place team in the Frontier 6-4 last Saturday.

The biggest reason for the Nationals' struggles this season has been their inability to stop their opponents from scoring. In nine games, Glacier has allowed opposing teams to score 58 goals, which is more than six goals per game. The Bulls, who have also struggled, are the second-worst defensive team in the division and are allowing more than five goals per game.

However, one of the big reasons for their turn around in the past few games for the Nationals has been their improving offense. During their first five games of the season, the Nationals scored just 18 goals and in their last four, they have scored 20.

No Glacier player has been better offensively this season than Tyler McMahon, who has scored a team-high 10 goals and posted a hat trick in Glacier's win over Gillette last Saturday. Marvin Simmons, who was the Frontier player of the week last week, has also excelled as an attacking player and is second on the team with five goals. Collin Schieman, who also had a hat trick for Glacier last Friday, comes into the game with four goals to his credit.

The Bulls also boast a balanced offensive attack and have four different players who have scored at least three goals this season. Connor Melton, Jeremy Vandekerhove and Edward Hoppman are all tied for the team lead with three goals along with Mason Graves. No other player has more than one goal.

Another common factor in both team's lack of success on defense has been inconsistent play of their respective goaltenders. The Nationals have gotten the best production from Ryall Prudy, who is 1-0 on the season with a 4.57 goals against average and a save percentage of 89 percent.

Ben Perone is 1-2 for the Nationals with a goals against average of 5.93, while Mikhail Pahrebets is 0-4-1 with a goals against average of 6.85.

The Bulls will rely on Gage Overby, who has a record of 1-2 and a goals against average of 4.0. Brandon Brown has also seen time in net for Billings, but he has yet to win this season and is 0-4 with a goals against average of 5.95.

Currently, the Bulls are in last place in the division after seven games with two points, while Glacier has five points in nine. Great Falls is in first-place with 12 points, followed by Yellowstone with 11, Gillette with 10, Bozeman with eight and Helena with six.

The Bulls and Nationals will get their two-game set underway tonight at 8 p.m. And they will conclude it Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.