News

GF Tribune: Americans fall in Silver Cup semis, season ends

By Steve Schreck, sschreck@greatfallstribune.com 

April 2, 2016

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Great Falls Americans weren’t satisfied with just a semifinal appearance. They wanted more, a banner and a championship, and Great Falls head coach Jeff Heimel said as much after Friday night’s 8-1 decision against the Yellowstone Quake.

That will have to wait another year.

Despite a 2-0 lead early in the second period, the Americans came up just short Saturday, falling to the Metro (Mich.) Jets 5-4 in a semifinal contest of the North American 3 Hockey League’s Silver Cup in Romeoville, Ill.

“There were times with this group when we were struggling early on to build chemistry together,” Heimel said of the season as a whole. “I just can’t believe the way that they came together at the end. Obviously, they wanted to win a league championship, but there’s improvement on last year as well. To get to the final four and have an opportunity to be one game away from playing for the title, that’s a huge step for our program. We’re excited, and we expect to be back there, plus one step further, next year.”

The Jets will play North Iowa for the title Sunday at noon Mountain Time.

Great Falls, which won its second straight Frontier Division playoff title last Friday, concludes the 2015-16 campaign 40-13-2. The Americans went 2-2 this week after going 0-3 in this same event a year ago. Read More>