Great Falls pair make college commitments

May 13, 2015

A pair of hockey players that played for the Great Falls Americans hockey team in the NA3HL during the 2014-15 season have made their decision to continue their education and hockey careers at the collegiate level beginning this fall.

 

Lucas Stover, a defender from Carona, California, will join the Robert Morris University (Chicago, IL) men’s hockey team in the fall of 2015. The Eagles are a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). 

 

Stover played the previous three seasons for the Great Falls Americans with the first two seasons as a member of the American West Hockey League (AWHL) and the 2014-15 season in the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) in the Frontier Division.

 

He accumulated 25 points this season for Great Falls producing five goals and 20 assists for coach Jeff Heimel’s team. He was a key member of Americans squad who made the playoffs the past two seasons and won the regular season and Frontier Divisional championships during the 2015 season. Great Falls finished their season with a 38-13-3 record including their first appearance in the Silver Cup Tournament in Geneva, Illinois in March. 

 

The newest college recruit was also a member of the Frontier team at the 2015 Top Prospects Tournament in Ann Arbor, Michigan in February. He played in both games and scored one goal and dished out two assists in the prestigious tournament that attracted many scouts and college coaches. 

 

He will be teammates with Nick Rizzo, who played for the Billings Bulls this past season, a rival to the Great Falls Americans and member of the NA3HL’s Frontier Division.

 

The new college signee stated that “the team’s biggest accomplishment this year was winning the divisional championship title over Helena.”

 

“The experience on the ice and practicing and conditioning that I had playing at the junior level will transfer over to playing at college and make me a better athlete,” said Stover.

 

Lucas Lomax will also continue his college career by signing at Northern Arizona University located in the city of Flagstaff. The Lumberjacks have a club team and belong to the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and have won the previous three league championships in the West Coast Hockey Conference.

 

The 5’10” forward from Phoenix, Arizona saw action for the Americans in 41 of the 54 games this past season. He led the team in goals scored with 30 and was fourth in assists (19). He helped guide the Americans to the playoffs and scored 10 goals and contributed five assists in seven appearances including a trip to the 2015 NA3HL Silver Cup Tournament. 

 

Lomax was also a teammate of Stover’s for three seasons for the Great Falls junior hockey franchise and he was also selected to play in the 2015 Top Prospects Tournament where he chipped in one goal as the team went 1-1 in the two-day tournament.

 

“We were able to win our division and beat the (Helena) Bighorns in the (NA3HL Frontier) Finals, which we have been building up to for the three years that I have been on the team and we also got to compete at the Silver Cup tournament for winning the Division title in our first year in the North American 3 Hockey League,” said Lomax in reference to some of the accomplishments that happened on the ice for Great Falls this season.

 

“Hockey is different from a lot of sports because you don’t usually go from high school straight to college. Playing hockey at the junior level has helped me prepare for college because you have to work towards making a college team by growing and maturing on your own and preparing for the next level.” 

 

Lomax mentioned that Jeff Heimel and his coaching staff prepared us a lot by implementing a great workout program and that helped us improve in many areas of hockey which resulted in getting to the NA3HL Frontier Finals and winning against Helena.

 

“I’m looking forward to competing at the college level and seeing how different it is than at the junior level,” said the former American. “I want to improve my skill level and become a top player at Northern Arizona as well.”