After a four-game homestand the Butte Cobras will take to the road this weekend to face the Gillette Wild (4-2-1-1) in a pair of NA3HL Frontier Division games. The series begins with a Friday night matchup at Spirit Hall Ice Arena and concludes the following night. Both games in Gillette are scheduled for 7:05 PM and will stream live on HockeyTV.
The Cobras are coming off a pair of losses to the Sheridan Hawks (6-1-0-0) who outscored Butte 21-4. It was an improvement from the first matchup between the teams on October 9-10 where Sheridan scored 39 goals in two games while Butte managed just one.
Kyler Garsjo continues to lead the Cobras offense as he scored the lone goal of the 8-1 loss on December 6. That tally came in the first period tying the game at 1-1.
Goaltenders Joey WIlson (47 saves; 5 goals against) and Tommy Near (52 saves; 3 goals against) split time in net if an effort to thwart off the never-ending Hawks attack.
The following night started bright as Garsjo scores just 1:21 into the game to give Butte their first lead in eight games played this season. It would be short-lived though as Sheridan put 42 shots on net in the opening frame scoring four times.
🚨Kyler Garsjo scores 1:21 into the game to give Butte a 1-0 advantage!!! https://t.co/qaOeENhGj4 #NA3HL
— Butte Cobras (@Butte_Cobras) November 8, 2020
Sheridan added a pair in the second period where the Hawks shot advantage was just 18-16, but things opened up in the third.
Recent addition Nikita Pinimyasov scored his first goal with the Cobras at 3:35 before Garsjo added another to make the score 7-3.
Pinimyasov joins the Cobras after playing 15 games in the NCDC this fall. Butte drafted the Russian-born forward first overall in the 2018 NA3HL Draft.
The final 14 minutes were a sloppy affair though seeing Sheridan add six goals on 37 shots to make the final 13-3.