CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY OPENS THE SEASON WITH 5-1 WIN AT THIEF RIVER FALLS

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team had five different players score as they offset the physical play of Thief River Falls in a 5-1 victory on Friday night at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls.
Despite having six power play opportunities, one a five-on-three for 112 seconds, the Pirates were 0-6 on the power play. 

FIRST PERIOD
Crookston dominated play from the drop of the puck.  The Thief River Falls goalie, Bella Hamre, was turning aside several Crookston shots. With about 10 minutes to go in the first period, Crookston’s Addie Fee rang a rebound off the pipe on a Brynley Coleman shot. Crookston finally struck with just over two minutes to go in the first period when Brekken Tull was deep in the Prowlers zone and sent the puck back to defensemen Ashlyn Bailey.  Ashlyn threaded a pass in the hash marks between the circles to Cassie Solheim, who snapped a shot into the net, and the Pirates led 1-0, which is how the first period ended. “We controlled things right off the opening faceoff said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “we had some good looks and just couldn’t get anything together with pucks bouncing, and although we had people in the right places, we couldn’t string things together to score more, but Cassie had a nice shot at getting us on the board.”

SECOND PERIOD
Power plays were dominant in the second period as Crookston had an early power play, did not score, then two Prowler penalties and a two-minute two-person advantage, and the Pirates couldn’t find the back of the net again. “We only had a power play in our practices just once,” said Meyer. “We didn’t have all the right people together to do it, so we’ll have to spend more time on that next week.” Crookston finally scored about seven and a half minutes into the period. Reese Swanson scored the goal to get the Pirates back on the board. “I was able to get the puck up the boards in their zone and looking for someone to pass to around the net, I didn’t see anyone, so I made a move around one of them and a spin-type move to get in front and was able to find the back of the net,” said Swanson. Just over four minutes later, the Pirates added another when Tull had a shot on goal, and the rebound was collected by Conley, who quickly deposited it in the back of the Prowler net, and the Pirates led 3-0.
Crookston took a couple of penalties giving Thief River Falls a five-on-three advantage for a minute and a half. Although the Pirate penalty kill was stalwart, it took away the Pirate momentum for a while. The Prowlers would finally get one past Crookston rookie goalie, sophomore Kambelle Freije (pronounced Fridge-E), whose family moved to Crookston this past fall from Grand Forks. Thief River Falls eighth-grader Lila Dalager was parked to the right of the Pirate net when a shot was on net. Freije was handcuffed a little bit, and she gave up a rebound to the right where Dalager was, and she banged it home to make 3-1. “Reese Swanson had a strong game again tonight,” said Meyer. “She hyped up the team when she needed to, a leader on the ice. It was good to see her gain that confidence that I’ve been waiting to see, and I think she will have a heck of a year.”

THIRD PERIOD
Thief River Falls took the only penalty of the third period reasonably early, and the Pirates were unable to tally with the advantage. Still, they took control of the period putting 17 shots on goal and netting two more goals, plus they had a Swanson shot from the blue line ring off the Prowler crossbar. The goals came 15 seconds apart with about five minutes to go in the game. Kaylie Clauson, on defense, pinched in a stole a puck in the Prowler’s zone and wristed a shot that went off Hamre’s shoulder and in to make it a 4-1 game. Seconds later, the Pirate third line combined for a goal as Grace Fischer worked to get the puck in the Thief River Falls zone and a pass to freshman Emma LaPlante who rifled a shot that beat Hamre to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead. “That was great seeing the third line getting a goal and quite the shot from Emma, who plays bigger than her size,” said Meyer. “We had all three lines score, two defensemen score, so it was nice we spread it around.”
Crookston ended up outshooting Thief River Falls 39-13. “It was a good overall game for us,” said Meyer. “We just have to keep improving each game.” The Pirates feel that coach Meyer has been on a conditioning fit with a lot of hard practices dealing with conditioning. When asked about it, Swanson said, “Yeah, we’ve worked a lot on conditioning, but I was really zapped in the third period, and most of the team was, so I guess we’ll be working some more on it in the coming weeks.”
Crookston will take their 1-0 record to Wahpeton, North Dakota, on Monday for a game against the Breckenridge-Wahpeton Blades. It will be the first meeting between the two teams and the season opener for the Blades. It will be varsity only and a 6:00 PM start at the Ellen Stern and Harry Stern Sports Arena in Wahpeton.  The Blades finished 6-5 last season winning their last four games, including a 9-3 win over Detroit Lakes, who they beat twice.
JV –    Thief River Falls won 4-3

1st Period
14:51 –  Crookston –  Cassie Solheim  (Ashlyn Bailey, Brekken Tull)

2nd Period
7:32 –  Crookston –  Reese Swanson (unassisted)
11:55 – Crookston – Brynley Conley (Brekken Tull, Reese Swanson)
14:55 –  TRF – Lila Dalager  (Camille Berra, Elory Mossestad)

3rd Period
11:55 –  Crookston –  Kaylie Clauson unassisted
12:10 –  Crookston –  Emma LaPlante  (Grace Fischer, Karena Longoria)