SWANSON & NELSON SCORE TWO APIECE TO LEAD PIRATE GIRL’S HOCKEY T0 5-1 WIN

Two weeks ago, Crookston head girl’s hockey coach Emily Meyer elected to bring sophomore defenseman Reese Swanson up to play a wing and that put the old band back together of Aleah Bienek and Addie Fee. Then this week Meyer did the same thing, bringing up Morgan Nelson to play forward after playing defense her whole career. Today it looked like a genius move as both converted forwards scored two goals apiece and the Pirates beat Northern Lakes 5-1 at the Crookston Sports Center. “I’m not a genius,” said Meyer, “it doesn’t take much to figure out that Reese and Morgan are top end hockey players who are smart, can move and score. We thought it would give us balanced scoring and so far, so good.” Nelson has scored three times as a forward in two games and Swanson the same. “To do this, we have to trust the defense we moved in. It works because Cassie Solheim has good defensive traits and Dillyn Wallace has been playing in and out at defense for a number of years and we have confidence in them along with Ashlyn (Bailey) and Rylee (Solheim).”

The first period was more of a feeling out period for both teams, but Crookston did score fairly early in the game and when the Pirates were changing lines. As Addie Fee was heading off the ice, she dumped in a pass to Jenna Seaver who in turn spotted Samantha Sanders parked right outside the left side of the Northern Lakes goal. Seaver’s pass was right on and initially Sanders fanned on it and that threw Lightning’s goalie Katherine Stephens off and 2-3 seconds later Sanders had total control and sniped a shot past Stephens to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “It was good to get that first goal,” said Meyer, “Also having the third line contribute gives them more confidence as well as the rest of the team.”  It wasn’t too long after that, about two minutes and change that Northern Lakes blew into the Crookston zone and snapped off a shot that hit the pipe to the right side of Kailee Magsam, the Crookston goalie and Crookston held on to their 1-0 lead. Crookston had a few Grade A chances like when Grace Fischer was in front of the Lightning’s goal by herself and got a pass and let a quick shot go, but one of the Lightning defensemen got a stick in the way to knock it off track. “We played a pretty good first period,” said Meyer, “we got good goaltending, scored and played pretty good defense. Just getting the rust off again after more postponements throwing off our rhythm.”

The second period started with Northern Lakes throwing everything they had at Crookston and it paid off early when their two leading scorers combine to tie it up. Leading overall scorer for the Lightning, Rose Alridge came straight in the Crookston end and let a shot go that Magsam got a piece off, but the rebound bounced to the Pirates who then coughed it up to Northern Lakes leading goal scorer, Riley Fogarty who rifled a shot that beat Magsam and it was tied at 1-1, 48 seconds into the period. That certainly sparked the Lightning as they put a lot of pressure in the Crookston end. ” We didn’t play all that bad in the period,” said Meyer, “they seemed to get a lot of shots on one flurry, but we were breaking down and we needed something to get our confidence back.” They got it, scoring two goals, the first was the old band doing it again when Aleah Bienek tipped a short pass to Addie Fee by the Lightning net and she saw Swanson breezing in toward the net and fed her a pass that was caught perfectly and a snapshot that hit the cross bar and in and the Pirates were back up 2-1. Later Nelson would score as hardworking center Brynley Coleman worked out her opponent and sent a pass to Nelson in the circle to the left side of the goal and put a perfect shot to beat Stephens and a 3-1 lead. “Yeah, I just tried to get open and Brynley found me and I let go a good shot,” said Nelson. “Maybe we didn’t play our best in the second period, but we did outscore them!” The Pirates were outshot in the second period 17 to 4!!! “I was like a fly on the wall in our locker room after the period,” said Meyer, “we had some of our girl’s standing and talking to the team. Cassie Solheim stood and said we have to get more shots on goal, so let’s go out there and do it.” Did it they did,
Crookston was on a mission in the third period and they said they were playing ‘Pirate Hockey’. Early in the period Nelson scored her second goal of the game, “I got another good pass from Ashlyn (Bailey) and it was almost identical to my first one, shooting about the same place and scored,” said Morgan. When asked on a postgame interview if she scores most of her goals in the same place? “Yes I do. I guess I’ll have to start working more on the blocker side shots in practice and games.” Crookston would add one more and that was Swanson in the same fashion as her first one with Bienek passing on the mark to Fee, who then hit Swanson almost the same place as her first one and make it a 5-1 lead arnd that would be the way it finished with Crookston outshooting Northern Lakes 16 to 5. “We really responded to what the girls were saying in the lockerroom after the second period,” said Meyer, “That is the way we want to play, that was Pirate hockey in that period. Now, we want to carry that over into a busy next week.”
Crookston is 8-5-1 on the season and will be at Detroit Lakes for a Section 8A game on Tuesday night, then two home games, on Friday with Wahpeton-Breckenridge and Saturday afternoon with another Section 8A game with International Falls. “We have some momentum now,” said Meyer, “we have three winnable games, but we take nothing for granted and take them a game at a time.”
Northern Lakes falls to 8-8-1 on the year and the Lightning will be hosting North Shore on Monday afternoon at the Breezy Point Arena.
JV – Crookston won 5-2

1st Period
4:14 – Crox – Samantha Sanders (3) (Addison Fee, Jeanna Seaver)

2nd Period
0:48 – NL – Riley Fogarty (Unassisted)
7:35 – Crox – Reese Swanson (8) (Addison Fee, Aleah Bienek)
12:35 – Crox – Morgan Nelson (5) (Brynley Coleman)

3rd Period
2:58 – Crox – Morgan Nelson (6) (Ashlyn Bailey)
13:25 – Crox – Reese Swanson (9) (Addison Fee, Aleah Bienek)