#8 PIRATE GIRLS HOCKEY SCORES FIVE TIMES IN THE THIRD TO BEAT TRF

The Crookston Pirate Girls’ Hockey team exploded with five goals in the third period to down the visiting Thief River Falls Prowlers in a Section 8A game played at the Crookston Sports Center. Ashlyn Bailey and Addie Fee scored twice, and Reese Swanson, a senior captain, scored a goal for the 100th point in her career.

First Period
Thief River Falls came out with a physical game in the first period, and the goaltending of Faith Hartmann kept the Pirates off the scoreboard for the first period; it looked like it was going to be 0-0 heading into the locker room. Thief River Falls had other ideas as Lila Dalager snuck behind the Crookston defense and was fed a pass by Grace Knutson. The freshman went in alone and managed to deke Pirate goalie Kambelle Freije for a 1-0 lead with 21 seconds to go in the period. Even though the Pirates dominated, outshooting the Prowlers 12-4 in the period, it seems they have so many shots blocked by the opposing team in every game, and it wasn’t any different tonight. “I swear that the opponents have magnets in their pads that draw the shots to them and also in the goalie’s belly,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “It’s where our pucks like to gravitate. It just took a bit to get going in the first period. We controlled it in their zone most of the time, but we gave them too many odd-man rushes, which we had to clean up going forward.” In the period, Pirate sophomore Ava Martin rang one off the pipe to the goalie’s right side, but it bounced out. “That was a great try by Ava, and it would have been nice to see her score as she moved up to play a wing on the third line because of illness to Cassie Solheim and Kaylie Clauson, but she played well even without scoring,” said Meyer. After the first period, Pirate senior defenseman Morgan Nelson had thoughts. “We can’t hang our heads; we should use that as momentum and keep going, fight harder, do things we’ve been practicing without two people, and try our best.”

Second Period
Crookston came out flying in the second period and struck quickly as they put a lot of pressure in front of the Prowler’s goal. Crookston had some chances, and then Taylor Field tipped the puck to Fee, who backhanded it to tie the game at 1-1 just 56 seconds into the period. “That was a big goal for us,” said Meyer, “It gave us a lift, and we would score another pretty quick.”
Quick was less than two minutes later when Bailey scored her first of the game on a wrist shot from the left circle and laid it perfectly to the right of the goalie almost at the pipe.” Crookston’s first lead was that they wouldn’t give up, as they led 2-1 with 14 minutes remaining in the period. The Pirates continued to buzz the Prowler’s zone, but finding shooting lanes plagued the home team. Crookston had about one and a half power play late in the period and did everything you could want to score. “We played another great period, and the physical of play is just Section 8 hockey that we are used to,” said Meyer, “playing against Thief River, East Grand Forks, and Warroad is that type of play, and we enjoy it playing teams closer to home. It’s the type of play we can give back. There were a couple of chips and, I’m sure, choice words in front of the net, but I think the girls did an excellent job.” A good job as Crookston outshot Thief River Falls 14-2 in the second period for a two-period total of 26 to 7!

Third Period
After scoring only two goals on 26 shots in the first two periods, Crookston kept the pressure on to start the third and continued throughout the rest of the game. Bailey would score her second goal of the game when she ripped one past Hartmann to make it 3-0 two minutes into the period. “Ashlyn has a good shot,” said Meyer, “she had a lot of shots tonight and found the net to give us some breathing room.” Just over a minute later, Fee would also score her second goal of the game when she made a couple of moves from the near boards in the Prowler zone, which opened up a lane to shoot at and picked a spot over the goalie’s glove to make it 4-1. Less than a minute later, Crookston finally scored on a power play, with Fee passing from the left circle in Thief River Falls zone to Morgan Nelson in the right circle, and Nelson’s shot made it through a maze of players in front of the goal and found its way through. “We were just passing the puck around in an umbrella like we’ve been taught,” said Nelson, “I got a pass from the other circle from Addie, and I just shot, and there was a lot of chaos in front, and it went in like that.” Coach Meyer was impressed with the hockey sense that Nelson has displayed in the last few games. Nelson’s ability to read the plays and step up, intercept a pass, and head the other way. “I guess I’ve been getting told I’ve been reading the ice like a book. I’m not overthinking as I haven’t been getting much sleep the last few days; I think that’s helping some way, I guess, which is not good but looks good out there on the ice.” Thief River Falls would score their second goal as a puck drifted into the Crookston zone, and Pirate goalie Freije would come out and try to poke check the puck but missed, and she was down, leaving an open net, and Kali Knutson was in the high slot and put it in to make it 5-2 with just under 10 minutes to go in the game.

“Kambelle said she would have liked to have that one back,” said Meyers, “both goals back in fact.” Crookston would score two late ones, but the sixth goal was a milestone reached by Reese Swanson, the Pirate defenseman/forward; with just under four minutes left in the game, she picked off a Thief River Falls pass and quickly moved in and sniped a shot past Hartmann for a 6-2 lead and it was the 100^th point of Swanson’s Pirate career! Swanson had two goals in the last game, as the senior captain announced she would go to college and play hockey at St. Olaf College next year. “Crookston would close out the scoring when Brynley Coleman tucked in a rebound right in front of the goal to make it 7-2, which was the final score. Crookston outshot Thief River Falls 43-10 in the victory. “I think we wore them down in the last period,” said Meyer. “it was a total team effort with everybody that played was on. If it’s not goals or assists, it’s the energy and what you can bring, and these girls did bring it. Everybody contributed to the victory.”

Crookston improves to 13-5-1 on the season and will host East Grand Forks on Thursday in another Section 8A game. It’s a doubleheader with the girls’ game with EGF starting at 5:00 PM at the Crookston Sports Center, followed by the Crookston boys’ hockey team hosting Warroad at 7:00 PM. It’s also Hockey Cancer Awareness night. “It’s always a difficult matchup,” said Meyer about the East Grand Forks game. “we’re excited about it. It’s a Section game, and there is nothing like it at home. On Thursday, it will be Hockey Fights Cancer game, and being able to celebrate Dani Sylvester too, I think that is huge, and we’ll be playing for something bigger than ourselves.” Crookston will close out their regular season home schedule on Saturday, hosting Dodge County Wildcats, who are 14-2 on the season! Crookston’s final regular season games are on the road.
Thief River Falls is now 4-10 on the year and will host Dodge County on Friday night.
JV – Crookston won 2-0

1st Period
16:39 – TRF – Lila Dalager (Grace Knutson)

2nd Period
0:56 – Crox – Addison Fee (7) (Taylor Field)
2:53 – Crox – Ashlyn Bailey (3) (Morgan Nelson)

3rd Period
2:05 – Crox – Ashlyn Bailey (4) (Jocelyen Fields, Brynley Coleman)
3:16 – Crox – Addison Fee (8) unassisted
4:00 – Crox – Morgan Nelson (5) (Addison Fee) (PP)
7:04 – TRF – Kali Knutson (Lila Dalager)
13:02 – Crox – Reese Swanson (7) unassisted
15:37 – Crox – Brynley Coleman (6) (Brekken Tull)

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