The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team used a hat trick from Garrett Fischer and great goaltending from Brady Chandler to defeat the Red Lake Falls Eagles by a score of 5-1 at Cardin Hunt Arena on Tuesday night.
FIRST PERIOD –
The first period began with dominant play by the Eagles, who recorded 6 of the first 7 shots of the game. However, all six of those shots were stopped by Brady Chandler, and the one shot the Pirates had got through, as Garrett Fischer scored right off of a faceoff, and the Pirates took an early 1-0 lead. After this score, the Eagles began to take some frustration out, and that resulted in 2 roughing penalties, giving the Pirates a 5-on-3. The Eagle defense stood tall, though, and did not allow any goals on the extended Pirates power play. Unfortunately for them, though, the Pirates set up again at 5-on-5, and Cody Demerais beat Draven Wirth from the blue line, putting the Pirates up 2-0. Less than 3 minutes later, a turnover caused by Demerais gave a wide open lane to Fischer, who scored his second of the game. Though both teams recorded 12 shots on goal, the Pirates went into the break leading 3-0.
SECOND PERIOD –
As the second period began, both teams increased their physicality significantly, and shots on goal were sparse for the first half of the period. That all changed when the Eagles got their second power play of the day, but just like the first one, the time was shortened by another Xavier Payment penalty, and that sent the game to 4-on-4. That was just fine for the Pirates, as Garrett Fischer delivered another beautiful shot, which put the Pirates up 4-0. From there, the Pirates began to control the pace of play and puck possession, and got multiple good looks, but Draven Wirth did a great job stopping them all. The Pirates had a near-rebound goal from Dylan Larson in the final minutes of the period, but a phenomenal save from Wirth kept the game at 4-0, which stood at the end of the period.
THIRD PERIOD –
In the third period, the pace started significantly slower than the first two. RLF got the first two shots on goal in the period, but just like in the first, the first shot of the period for the Pirates went in, as Masen Reitmeier scored his 1st of the game to put the Pirates up 5-0. From there, Crookston chose to play a bit more conservative, choosing to send the puck in deep and kill clock. A few minutes later, for the third time, the game went to 4-on-4, and this time RLF got a brief period of time on the power play, and were able to cash in with a snipe from Coby Knott, putting the Eagles on the board. However, that would be the last goal of the game. Both teams got more chances, but at the end of the day, Brady Chandler and the Pirates surged ahead to a 5-1 victory.
Crookston finishes the regular season at 15-9-1, while RLF ends the season at 14-11.
The Section 8A seeding meeting is Wednesday morning at 9 AM.
Crookston Pirate head coach Josh Hardy and assistant coach Connor Morgan recorded their 100th win as a tandem. Their interviews are below.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Red Lake Falls | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
1st Period
2:45 – Crookston – Garrett Fischer (Greyson Ecker)
10:29 – Crookston – Cody Demerais (Garrett Fischer)
13:07 – Crookston – Garrett Fischer (Greyson Ecker, Cody Demerais)
2nd Period
9:25 – Crookston (4-on-4) – Garrett Fischer (Greyson Ecker, Jay Reese)
3rd Period
1;52 – Crookston – Masen Reitmeier (Gavin Aakhus, Liam Larson)
5:13 – RLF (PP) – Coby Knott (Xavier Payment, Riley Broden)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Brady Chandler – Crox | 12 | 7 | 8 | 27 |
| Draven Wirth – RLF | 9 | 10 | 6 | 25 |
