BIG 1ST PERIOD POWERS THIEF RIVER FALLS PAST PIRATES BOYS HOCKEY

The Thief River Falls Prowlers exploded for six goals in the first period enroute to a 7-0 win over the Crookston Pirates Boys Hockey team in a Section 8A game played at the Crookston Sports Center. 

1st Period
The night got off to a bad start for the Pirates as Thief River Falls would score on their first three shots of the game and problems continued to mount. Tysen Loeffler would give the Prowlers the 1-0 lead just 1:23 into the game as he flicked a wrist shot inside the right post. Exactly three minutes later Isaiah Villarreal sniped the top left corner to make it 2-0. The Prowlers would make it 3-0 with 11:02 to go in the period when Brendan Bottem found Zachary Dalzell on the top of the crease, and Dalzell fired the puck five-hole. “We had a tough start there,” said Pirates coach Josh Hardy. “It started with we were shorthanded, to begin with, and lost a kid during the JV game. We had to adjust our lines and it took us a little bit to feel each other out. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite ready to go and they jumped on us.” Following the third goal, the Pirates would call their timeout to try to get the game back in hand. “We were just losing guys in the zone,” said Hardy. “They were moving the puck well and flying all over the place. We struggled defensively to stay with our players and they made us pay. The message was it’s 3-0, who cares, we can play positionally much better than we did in the first few minutes. We have to be goldfish. We have to have 10-second memories, put that behind us and keep playing.” The Pirates would get a powerplay midway through the period but managed just one shot on goal as the Prowlers controlled the puck for much of the Pirates’ man advantage. The Prowlers would go on the powerplay late in the period which would spark a trio of goals to end the frame. First, on the powerplay, Dalzell carried the puck to the front of the net where his shot was stopped but Blake Biermaier knocked in the rebound to make it 4-0 with 1:43 left. Just 14 seconds later Gannon Kempert dumped the puck on net from center ice and it bounced past the goaltender to make it 5-0. Then with the clock winding down, Villarreal sprang Biermaier who ripped a wrist shot five-hole for his second goal just before the horn sounded making the score 6-0. “Right at the end they kind of jumped all over us,” said Hardy. “Again, it was us losing guys in the corner, standing around looking all over the place like – who do I get. The guy we were supposed to get ended up with the puck on his stick scoring a couple of times. They got a bad bounce on one there and then, a late, late, late goal. We go in 6-0 pretty frustrated.” The Prowlers outshot the Pirates 15-1 in the first period. 

2nd Period
The second saw some better action as the Pirates had a couple of grade-A scoring chances including a shot Kaleb Thingelstad rang off the left post midway through the period. The Pirates continued to struggle on the powerplay in the second as they had two powerplay opportunities but again spent the majority of those chances in their own end playing defense. “I thought the second period was better,” said Hardy. “We played with a little more confidence, a little more jam. The message during the intermission break was we looked like we didn’t care out there. It was a much better period. Kaleb had a great opportunity to score there, hit the pipe. We had a couple of good chances. I thought our second line, especially off offensive zone faceoffs looked great with Nate Kelly having a couple of shots there. The Prowlers outshot the Pirates 4-1 on Pirate powerplays in the second period. The Prowlers would add to their lead late in the period on a bit of nifty passing. First Dalzell found Bottem below the goal line and he immediately fed the puck to Kaden Bakken at the top of the crease where he flipped the puck in for a 7-0 lead with 3:04 to go in the period. The Prowlers ended the period with the extra skater but were unable to score before the period ended and carried 1:05 of powerplay time over to the third. The Prowlers outshot the Pirates 12-6 in the second period. 

3rd Period
With the Prowlers leading 7-0 after two periods, the entire third period was played with a running clock. Despite that, the Prowlers still managed to throw 20 shots on net although they were unable to beat Pirates goaltender Carter Nelson who made 42 saves, 31 over the final two periods rebounding from a tough first period.  “I thought the story of the night for me was Carter Nelson,” said Hardy. “The kid had a tough period. Maybe not count the bouncer, but four or five other goals on his defensemen. It’s tough to go in down 6-0 after the first period. I thought he came out in the second and third and played tremendously. He gave up one goal on a rebound back door. It says a lot about the character and resiliency of the kid to have a bad period and come out and battle.” The Pirates struggled to get out of their own end throughout the period getting just two shots on goal. The first came midway through the period when Zach Tahran came in one-on-one down the right side and fired a shot on goal. The rebound would leak out the back door put the Pirates didn’t have anyone in a position to play to the puck. The only other shot of the period would come a couple of minutes later when Noah Kiel put a shot on goal from just outside the blue line. 

The Pirates fall to 2-9 on the year and will travel to play the Detroit Lakes Lakers in a Section 8A game on Friday night at Kent Freeman Arena at 7 p.m. in a game that can be heard on KROX Radio beginning with the RiverView Health pregame show at 6:30 p.m. Thief River Falls improves to 7-5-1 and will host Warroad in a big Section 8A game on Friday. 

1st Period
15:37 – TRF – Tysen Loeffler  (Brady Skeim)
12:37 – TRF – Isaiah Villarreal  (Blake Biermaier)
11:02 – TRF – Zachary Dalzell  (Brendan Bottem)
1:43 – TRF – Blake Biermaier  (Zachary Dalzell, Tysen Loeffler) (PP)
1:29 – TRF – Gannon Kempert (unassisted)
0:00 – TRF – Blake Biermaier (2) (Isaiah Villarreal)

2nd Period
3:04 – TRF – Kaden Bakken  (Brendan Bottem, Zachary Dalzell)

3rd Period
No scoring

[yotuwp type=”videos” id=”Jrpuk-_FlQY” ]

krox admin

See Full Bio