The Crookston Pirates girl’s hockey team couldn’t protect a 3-1 lead after one period falling 7-5 against Thief River Falls in a Section 8A game played at the Crookston Sports Center.
FIRST PERIOD –
Crookston started the game strong setting the tone in the first period. Catherine Tiedemann opened the scoring just 1:37 into the first period on a goal assisted by Aleah Bienek, giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “It came from behind the net, and Aleah Bienek got the puck in front of the net where Cat (Tiedemann) just scored on their goaltender,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe. Crookston added another goal 0:56 later when Nora Peterson found Kenze Epema for the game’s second goal increasing the Pirates lead to 2-0. “(Epema) got a pass from Nora Peterson out at her defensive position and just fired a good hard slap shot that went into the upper corner,” said Moe. “Unfortunately, we thought if we got pucks to the net, we could do something. Their goalie was a freshman because their normal goalie had a little bit of a knee injury, so she wasn’t playing tonight. So we thought we could get something there, but we couldn’t get shots to the net. When we did, we were able to be productive on it.” Lexi Huot cut Crookston’s lead in half with a Thief River Falls goal with 12:56 to play in the period. Raina Satrom ended the period on a high note for the Pirates scoring a power-play goal assisted by Cassie Solheim with just 0:07 left in the period giving Crookston a 3-1 lead after one period. “Raina had a couple of goals tonight,” added Moe. “That was a huge goal for us to go up 3-1 into the second. We warned our kids that (Thief River Falls) was going to come at you in the second period.”
SECOND PERIOD –
Thief River Falls reversed the script in the second period. Khloe Lund brought the Prowlers within 3-2 after scoring 2:56 into the second frame. Raina Satrom answered with a short-handed goal for Crookston increasing the Pirates’ lead to 4-2. Bela Nelson responded with a power-play goal 18-seconds later before Rachel Georgeson tied the game at 4-4 with 2:21 to play in the period where the score remained going into intermission. “I thought we did OK for quite a while,” said Moe. “They were just relentless. They keep coming at you. That’s what we need to get to. Where it doesn’t matter who we throw on the ice, we have to keep going. For periods we did control the puck in the offensive zone, but (Thief River Falls) did a nice job of keeping us to the outside. We could never really penetrate.”
THIRD PERIOD –
Lexi Huot scored a power-play goal with 10:34 to play off a crossing pass sent by Khloe Lund, giving Thief River Falls its first lead at 5-4. The Prowlers added an insurance goal with 5:23 to play when Katie Nelson ripped a slap shot into the net, making it 6-4. Khloe Lund closed out the Prowlers scoring with 2:40 to play, putting the game out of reach at 7-4. Catherine Tiedemann netted a late goal for Crookston in the final minute, but it wasn’t enough as Thief River Falls closed out a 7-5 win. “This is another step for the program,” added Moe. “Every time we step on the ice, we want to get better and improve things. It’s always nice hearing from other coaches and officials that tell us how much better we are.”
Crookston falls to 6-11. The Pirates return to the ice on Saturday when Crookston hosts Northern Lakes at 2:00 P.M. Thief River Falls improves to 7-6.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Thief River Falls | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| CROOKSTON | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
1st Period
15:23 – CROX – Catherine Tiedemann (3) (Aleah Bienek)
14:27 – CROX – MacKenze Epema (2) (Nora Peterson)
12:56 – TRF – Lexi Huot (Bela Nelson)
0:07 – CROX – Raina Satrom (6) (Cassie Solheim) (PP)
2nd Period
14:04 – TRF – Khloe Lund unassisted
11:48 – CROX – Rain Satrom (7) unassisted (SH)
11:30 – TRF – Bela Nelson (Rachel Georgeson) (PP)
2:21 – TRF – Rachel Georgeson (Katie Nelson, Bela Nelson)
3rd Period
10:34 – TRF – Lexi Huot (Khloe Lund) (PP)
5:23 – TRF – Katie Nelson (Khloe Lund)
2:40 – TRF – Khloe Lund (Daniella Niebuhr, Bela Nelson)
0:37 – CROX – Catherine Tiedemann (4) (Rylee Solheim)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Bell Hamre – TRF | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Grace Koshney – CROX | 7 | 8 | 7 | 22 |
