The new season began early for the Butte Irish who dropped a pair of games to the Gillette Wild on September 15-16 on home ice. Now after a week with no games and an opportunity to work and improve the team faces their first road trip of the year.

Butte Irish will make the 355-mile trek east to Sheridan on Friday to face the Hawks in a pair of NA3HL Frontier Division games. Both will stream live on NAHLtv.

Sheridan Hawks (0-4-0-0) have had a tough start to their season. After dropping a pair to the Bozeman Icedogs opening weekend the Hawks hosted Helena Bighorns last weekend and did not fair any better. Helena outscored the Hawks 12-3 in the two games to remain unbeaten while Sheridan is on a four-game slide to begin the new season.

“The last two weeks we have been catching up on our practices as we finally have our own ice,” commented head coach Marc Brodeur. “The boys have been working hard to prepare for Sheridan and I think we are ready to put up a really good fight and get our first win. Sheridan is a good team who fought hard against Helena last week and play well at home.”

Second-year forward Patrick Crooks got off to a strong start to the new season scoring twice while adding a pair of helpers against Gillette. Rookie Brennen Morgan showed some offensive prowess scoring in each of the first two games as well.

Andrew Browe, a 19-year old from California, scored the other Irish goal in game two. Browe was acquired in a trade with the New Mexico Ice Wolves (NA3HL) where he put up 11 points in 30 games played last season.

“With the two additions we got in the last three weeks and another significant addition that is signing tonight to play with us, our team landscape has changed and I am very excited about how this team will play moving forward,” added Brodeur. “The puzzle is slowly coming together and we are gelling quite nicely as a team.”