Crookston Girls Hockey holds on with great defense to beat EGF

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team used terrific defense and an elite performance from Madi Abrams to take down the East Grand Forks Green Wave by a score of 2-1 at the East Grand Forks Civic Center on Monday night.

FIRST PERIOD
Defense would be the word to summarize the first period. That was exemplified as neither team got a shot on goal in the first 4 minutes of the period. IN the final 13 minutes, the Pirates were outshot by the Green Wave 12-6, but the period turned into a goalie duel between Pirate goaltender Madi Abrams and EGF netminder Reese Kvasager. The Pirates had two power plays in the period, but only got one shot on goal combined. With 6 minutes left, both teams had 4 shots on goal. However, even though EGF outshot Crookston 8-2 to end the period, Abrams held firm, and the period ended scoreless.

SECOND PERIOD
The second period looked initially like things were going to play out the same way as the first, but the Pirates began to increase the physicality, and began to get a lot more shots on goal. Though Reese Kvasager was able to stop a breakaway from Adley Vigness in the first 3 minutes, she was unable to stop a great stick play from Catelyn Maruska, as her first varsity goal on a rebound gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead, their first lead over EGF this year. From there, the defense came back, with both goalies making amazing and athletic saves. The Pirate defense killed one penalty, and the EGF defense killed 2. However, immediately as the second one concluded, with under a minute to go from the blue line, Vigness sniped a shot by Kvasager, giving the Pirates a 2-0 lead at the end of the second period.

THIRD PERIOD
As the third period started, EGF looked to answer, and they significantly increased the pace. This capitalized in a goal, as Ady Hjelman was able to beat Abrams on a great shot from the slot to cut the lead down to 2-1. However, the Pirates did not buckle down from the pressure, and continued to lock up on defense. Even though they were only able to get 5 shots on goal, the Pirates relied on Abrams, killing another penalty and stopping the Green Wave’s 6-on-5 attack, and that all culminated in the Pirates holding on to a 2-1 victory, snapping a 6-game losing skid.

Crookston improves to 5-14 on the season and will take on Roseau on Tuesday night. EGF drops to 10-7-1 on the year.
JV – EGF won 4-0