sports

3RD PERIOD GOALS FROM NELSON & TULL LEAD CROOKSTON TO 2-1 WIN OVER ROSEMOUNT

December 27, 2023

The Crookston Pirates went 0-6 on the power play but scored two late third-period goals by Morgan Nelson and Brekken Tull, a pair of senior captains, to lead the Pirates to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Rosemount Irish on the second day of the Hockey Town Girl’s Hockey Holiday Classic at the Gardens in Warroad. The win was the Pirate’s eighth in nine games.

FIRST PERIOD
The first period was more of a feeling-out period for both teams, with Crookston having two power-play chances. Although they put up some shots and had some chances in close, they couldn’t penetrate Avery Miller, Rosemount’s junior goaltender. “We had a lot of chances and dominated in the offensive zone pretty well,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “we’d shoot the puck on net and get some juicy rebounds that we couldn’t reach, couldn’t get to them fast enough. We were trying to shoot them low to try and get some screens and tips. Making sure we had people in front of their net. Even our point-blank shots missed the net as we tried to go to those upper corners.” Crookston outshot Rosemount l3-5 in the first period.

SECOND PERIOD
Crookston would have another power-play opportunity early in the second period and didn’t muster many chances, and Rosemount would kill off their third straight penalty. Crookston would draw their first penalty about halfway through the period. It wouldn’t take a minute for Rosemount to capitalize with the man advantage when the Irish’s leading scorer, Analee Holzer, fluttered up a shot toward Crookston goalie Kambelle Freije, “In Kambelle’s words, it was a muffin,” said coach Meyer, “she says that muffins are the hardest ones to stop as you don’t know where they will go. She said it hit her blocker and rolled over on top of her when she was watching it, just an unlucky bounce for Kam and us.” Both teams continued to play stingy defensively, and both had some chances, but the goal seemed to spark Rosemount. “We started to play on our heels,” said Meyer, “we watched and reacted. Their goal took the wind out of our sails, but Kambelle stood tall in our net.”
Rosemount outshot Crookston in the period 12-6 and led 1-0.

THIRD PERIOD
Last night, Rosemount had a 4-2 over Warroad going into the third period, with Warroad scoring three unanswered goals, with the last coming with 40 seconds left in the game to give the Warriors a 5-4 win over Rosemount. Would it be Deja vu for the Irish this afternoon? “I went into the locker room after the second period and told the girls that this has to be the best period we will play this afternoon,” said Meyer, “they rose to the occasion and bought into that and knew they had to give 17 minutes.” Nothing happened for a while in the third, making the one-goal lead for Rosemount loom large. With one penalty to end the second period, Rosemount had two more in the third, but the Pirates would be shut down on the extra man this afternoon. “That was disappointing,” said coach Meyer, “we again had some chances, but they played their top guns on the PK and did a good job along with their goalie.” It was starting to get to biting fingernails time for both teams as it was five minutes left in regulation, and the Irish still had a 1-0 lead. On Rosemount’s last penalty of the game, the Irish would skate it off, although there was extreme pressure by the Pirates. 21 seconds after the penalty ended, Crookston was still applying pressure in the offensive zone. From the corner in the Rosemount end, the Pirate eighth grader Jocelyn Field struck her magic again by threading a pass to defenseman Morgan Nelson, who took a couple strides up the slot and put a blast past Miller to tie that game at 1-1 with four and a half minutes left in regulation. “We needed that goal,” said Meyer, “it lit a fire under us. Morgan drilled it into the back of the net.” Just over three minutes later, with 1:23 to go in regulation, the Pirates would strike again. Tull was given a pass from Jocelyn Field, went in on a breakaway, and moved to bring the goalie down; Tull went to the goalie’s left and put a strong backhander past to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. “I think I was late on a backcheck in the neutral zone,” said Tull, “Jocelyn grabbed the puck and was able to poke it out to me, and I went down, and I don’t know what to do on a breakaway, so I just made a deke on their goalie and went to my backhand and scored. We had a good third period, kept putting pressure on them, and when Morgan scored, that gave us a big lift.”
Rosemount pulled their goalie with just over a minute to go and put on some pressure, but Freije was tough, and Crookston wasn’t able to get any clear shots at the open net, and time ran out to give the Pirates a great 2-1 comeback win over Rosemount.

Crookston improves to 11-3-1 on the year and will finish up the Hockey Town Classic tomorrow afternoon against Warroad, ranked #3 in Class A. Crookston defeated Warroad in early December in Crookston 2-0! The rematch tomorrow will also include the ‘mythical’ championship, as both teams are unbeaten and 2-0 in the two games so far.
Rosemount drops to 5-7-2 on the season and will play Fort Frances, Ontario, at 11:00 AM.
JV – Rosemount beat Crookston 8-0