MOORHEAD SPEED TOO MUCH FOR PIRATE GIRL’S HOCKEY AS SPUDS WIN 8-2

The Moorhead Spuds Girl’s Head Hockey Coach, Ryan Kraft, said, “We think we have one of the fastest teams in all of Minnesota!” After Moorhead beat the Crookston Pirates, head coach Emily Meyer said, “He will have no disagreement from me. They are extremely quick, and I thought at one point they were playing the same girls all the time because there was no difference between their first, second, and third lines.” Moorhead scored four goals in the second period to break it open and went on to an 8-2 win over the Pirates in a game played in Moorhead.

Both teams were flying to start the game, and Moorhead would strike first just over six minutes into the game when Bria Holm swiped a puck in the Crookston end and snapped off a shot from about eight feet out that beat Pirate goalie, Kailee Magsam, to give the Spuds and 1-0 lead. Crookston would answer 33 seconds later as their leading scorer, who is setting her sights on at least 20 goals this season when Reese Swanson came flying some center ice, losing a couple of Spuds, got into the Moorhead zone, turned a defenseman a bit to enable her to get a shot off that beat her to the stick side. There wasn’t much room, but Swanson found a spot to tie it up at 1-1. “That was a great goal by Reese,” said Meyer, “she showed off her speed, strength, and a great shot to get right back at them to tie it up.” Moorhead would pick up the pace a little more through the rest of the period and did score with five and a half minutes left in the period when defenseman Kate Kosobud, from near the blue line on the left side to the right of Magsam and Kosobud, let a booming shot go that knocked the goalie stick right out of Magsam’s glove and went in to give Moorhead the lead again at 2-1. “Kailee said she thought she had it, and it hit her stick and went up into the overhead netting, but she turned around and saw it was in the net,” said Meyer. The rest of the period was neutral, and it was 2-1 Moorhead after 17 minutes.

The Holm sisters would get the first two goals of the second period. Bria from sister Elle with just less than three minutes gone on another quick shot by Bria Holm. A little later, Elle Holm scored from Bria, and it was 4-1 with Moorhead up. Moorhead would score two goals within 36 seconds of each other, the first was a rebound smacked in by Maggie Hanson. Then it was Kosobud, in her own zone, banked a pass to herself at center ice, wasn’t picked up then and skated unmolested into the Pirate end and walked up the slot, and another hard shot that blazed by Magsam and the Spuds led 6-1. “Kudos to them because they are fast,” said Meyer, “it was tough to even backcheck as we could, and even though we got a stick on it, they were still able to shoot that puck.” The Pirates had a great opportunity late in the period with Coleman standing in front by herself and received a pass from Morgan Nelson right on Brynley’s stick. Still, she couldn’t catch it cleanly and shot face to face with Moorhead’s goalie Taylor Kressin from about eight/ten feet out never materialized! “That is going to eat at her for a while,” said Meyer, “she wishes she could have that back.” The Spuds outshot Crookston 12-4 in the first period. “I thought we came out pretty fast ourselves in the period,” said Meyer, “but it was the constant pressure they had, and every time we’d maybe get something going, they would have two or three players right there.”

Crookston started the third period on a power play for about 49 seconds. Their power play hasn’t been very good this season. Still, Coleman would score 20 seconds into the period, fighting behind the Moorhead net, grabbing the puck, and coming around the Spuds net’s right side and beat Kressin, and Coleman did get this one. She was leaping up and down after the goal, feeling somewhat vindicated on the earlier botch.  Pirates only go to enjoy it was 42 seconds when Elle Lebahn scored on a nice pass, and it was back to 7-2 Moorhead leading. The Spuds would get one more just about seven minutes into the period with their prettiest of the night when their leading scorer, Olivia Dronen, came into the Crookston zone, worked the puck around looking to pass, she did to Bria Holm, who quickly passed to Taylor Brueske and she just had to tap it in the open net on beautiful tic-tac-toe! The game would be running time for the next 10 minutes and run quickly, and the score ended up 8-2 in favor of Moorhead. Crookston did have another great chance in the third when Coleman and Nelson were on a two-on-one, Coleman fed a perfect pass to Nelson, who was in alone, and fired a shot that was just high and wide as she was going top shelf. “She knew she had that corner picked,” said Meyer on Nelson’s shot, “she knew that goalie when we came in, would go down and needed to go high, but just a little bit too much on it.” In the end, it was just too much speed that the Spuds brought to the game, and the Pirates weren’t able to match it tonight. “That is something we are going to have to go back and work on,” said Meyer, “this is going to be a test that hopefully coming up if we manage to get to play Warroad in the Section Tournament. We have to focus on the East Grand Forks’ possible games and work together as a team.”

Crookston is now 14-8-1 and will finish the regular season off tomorrow night against the East Grand Forks Green Wave. Interesting enough, today was the Section 8A coaches seeding meeting with Warroad seeded one, followed by Crookston at number two and East Grand Forks number three!! “Sort of ironic in that we’ll be the #2 seed and East Grand will be the #3 seed, and we’ll be the home team, but it’s on their ice and in their rink.”  IF East Grand Forks would beat International Falls at home on Thursday in the Section 8A Quarterfinals, the Pirates and East Grand Forks would play for the FOURTH TIME and IN East Grand Forks on Saturday at 6:00 PM.
Moorhead finishes their regular season at 17-8-0. The Section 8AA Girl’s Hockey Tournament starts on Saturday.

1st Period
6:15 –  Moorhead – Bria Holm  unassisted
6:48 –  Crookston –  Reese Swanson  (19) unassisted
11:26 – Moorhead –  Kate Kosobud  (Maddie Spaeth)

2nd Period
2:54 –  Moorhead –  Bria Holm  (Elle Holm)
10:38 – Moorhead –  Elle Holm  (Bria Holm)
15:46 – Moorhead –  Maggie Hanson  (Olivia Kortan)
16:22 – Moorhead –  Kate Kosobud unassisted

3rd Period
:20 –  Crookston –  Brynley Coleman  (15)  (Morgan Nelson, Reese Swanson)  (PP)
1:02 – Moorhead –  Elle Lebahn  (Annie Krieg, Maddie Spaeth)
6:57 – Moorhead –  Taylor Brueske  (Bria Holm, Olivia Dronoen)