The Great Falls Americans are a

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United ...

-sanctioned Tier III Junior A

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team from

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...

, playing at the Great Falls IcePlex in the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL). The players, ages 16–20, carry amateur status under Junior A guidelines and hope to earn a place on a Canadian major junior, collegiate or minor professional team.

History

The Americans were founded in 2011 as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

scheduled to be part of the

Northern Pacific Hockey League The Northern Pacific Hockey League (NPHL) was an American Tier III junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. Its championship trophy was the Cascade Cup. History Established in 2000 as the NorPac Junior Hockey League, the league was ...

(NorPac) for the 2011–12 season. Instead, the team joined the rest of the eastern NorPac teams in creating the new

American West Hockey League The American West Hockey League (AWHL) was an American Tier III Junior ice hockey league based in Montana and Wyoming. The league was a member of USA Hockey and was founded in 2011. The AWHL merged into the NA3HL in March 2014. History The A ...

(AWHL). In March 2014, the AWHL joined the North American 3 Hockey League as the Frontier Division for the 2014–15 season.

Season-by-season records

References

External links

official web site
{{Montana Sports Ice hockey teams in Montana Ice hockey clubs established in 2011 American West Hockey League teams 2011 establishments in Montana Sports in Great Falls, Montana