The Crookston Pirates and East Grand Forks Green Wave scored four goals in the first period, three of them specialty team goals, but that would be all the scoring even with a wild third period and overtime to end in a 2-2 overtime tie between the two rivals. They have met three times during the regular season and each have won a game and now a tie to go 1-1-1!!!
Crookston started out quick with a rebound goal by Brynley Coleman on a pass in front from Morgan Nelson and four and a half minutes into the game it was 1-0 with Crookston leading. That lasted a couple of minutes until Coleman took a penalty and the Green Wave scored 13 seconds later when Trinity D’Heilly scored on a slap shot from the blue line after a partner pass at defense from Ava Kleinvachter, who had kept a Pirate clearing pass inside the zone. Crookston’s Kaylie Clauson would take a five-minute major penalty for boarding and East Grand Forks scored just one time in the five minutes but it was a beautifully set up goal by their two leading scorers as Kendra Emery came into the zone on the play and sent a nice on the ice pass to Kara Ellis to score and the Green Wave led 2-1 with less than seven and a half minutes to go in the period. Crookston still had to skate off three minutes shorthanded and did. Then East Grand Forks took a couple of penalties almost back to back and at one time Crookston had a five on three power play for 35 seconds but could score on either penalty and it was still 2-1 East Grand Forks and actually, Crookston took a penalty with 1:24 to go in the period and the Pirates leading scorer, Reese Swanson received a pass into the Green Wave zone and was in partially alone and threaded the needle on a shot to beat Ashley Corbett, the East Grand Forks senior goalie to tie it at 2-2 with 13 seconds to go in the period. “It was tough,” said Crookston coach Emily Meyer, “We were in the penalty box, out of the box, playing shorthanded, then on a power play, back shorthanded, it was just tough.” Crookston continues to score shorthanded goals, particularly by Swanson, but just get the power play to strike gold. “We do such a good job on the penalty kill, even though we gave up a couple of power play goals tonight,” said coach Meyer, “we’ve seen a lot of shorthanded goals especially from Reese and Addie Fee, where it’s kind of their thing, where they go hard and have more room to play with. It’s just tough we haven’t put more power-play goals in when we’ve had the chance.”
The second period was a period of the Pirates taking two more penalties which now totaled 13 minutes in penalties for the game. The good thing was the Pirates were able to skate both of the penalties off and the Green Wave also skated theirs off. East Grand Forks slammed a shot on Magsam, who went down and the puck was laying to her left side by itself in the blue area and at the goal line when Pirate Aleah Bienek reach the puck and fished it out to keep it 2-2. The Pirates came back with a three-on-one led by Nelson but was broken up at the last second. There were a lot of end-to-end rushes by both teams, a lot of physical play on both sides. “That is what I love about this rivalry,” said Meyer, “it’s always going to be aggressive, it’s always going to be back and forth.”
The third period seemed to be that neither team wanted to make a mistake. The teams seemed to be a little slower, the crowd was lulled into sleeping in the stands, but the two teams kept battle back and forth, a lot of pinching by the defense too much success of not letting the other team penetrate. Crookston outshot East Grand Forks 24-13 in the last two periods but was unable to get the go-ahead goal. “We really wanted the game,” said Meyer, “maybe wanted it almost too pretty. We have to play with a little more grit and with the chip on our shoulder.” Both teams used their timeouts to no avail and they would go into the eight-minute overtime tied at 2-2.
The overtime was wild with Crookston having more good scoring chances but Corbett stood tall blocking four shots while Kailee Magsam, the Pirate goalie stopped three and neither allowed a goal. East Grand Forks would take a penalty with 14 seconds left in the game and a face-off in the East Grand Forks zone. The Pirates coach Meyer, elected to pull her goalie with the game tied! “I had to risk it,” said Meyer, “there were 15 seconds left. I wanted the girls to put that pressure on and put it on pretty hard. I knew that was the time that they were really going to sell out and they didn’t want to lose, but I needed them to need to win a little bit more. With six against four, it would have given us another option, although chaotic. I was hoping we could move it toward their net and just pop it in.” Was the coach’s stomach fluttering, turning over a little bit? “I don’t think I took a breath the whole overtime,” said Meyer, “I wanted it really bad for our kids, after working hard all season. Ending with a tie was a little disappointing.”
Crookston as the number two seed for the Section 8A Tournament will be off until Saturday and will play a semi-final game at 6:00 PM in East Grand Forks against? EAST GRAND FORKS!!! That is IF East Grand Forks beats International Falls on Thursday in a Section 8A quarterfinal. “I hope the girls really feel this one because it stings,” said Meyer, “It should be a great game on Saturday ironically in their building, but this is where we want to be and I expect our girls to come out strong on Saturday.”
Crookston is 14-8-2 on the regular season while East Grand Forks is 6-13-1. Who wins the rivalry will be settled by 9:00 PM on Saturday night.
The other Section 8A quarterfinal game on Thursday will be Thief River Falls hosting Detroit Lakes at the Ralph.
If things go as expected the semi-finals on Saturday at the East Grand Forks Civic Center will be the number one seed, Warroad playing East Grand Forks at 4:00 PM, followed by Crookston and East Grand Forks at 6:00 PM. The Crookston/East Grand Forks game will be on KROX RADIO, the internet by going to the LISTEN LIVE link AND LIVE VIDEO STREAMED ON KROXAM.com
Sorry, no pictures tonight, the OPERATOR fell asleep at the switch
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Total | |
| East Grand Forks | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| CROOKSTON | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
1st Period
4:38 Crox – Brynley Coleman (6) (Morgan Nelson)
6:37 – EGF – PP – Trinity D’Heilly (Ava Kleinvachter)
9:41 – EGF – PP – Kara Ellis (Kendra Emery)
16:47 – Crox – SH – Reese Swanson (20) (Brynley Coleman)
2nd Period
No Scoring
3rd Period
No Scoring
Overtime Period
No Scoring
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | Final |
| Kailee Magsam – Crox | 6 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 22 |
| Ashley Corbett – EGF | 7 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 36 |
