The Crookston Blue Line Club has released the Crookston Youth Hockey report for January 20-26. The team recaps and the players of the week are listed below.
MITE WHITE
This week’s player of the week for the Mite Whites is Nolan Kuchan. Over the weekend, the whites played a pair of games vs. TRF. Both games were close in score, and Nolan recorded several points between the two games. Nolan’s play has been good all season, but he really showed his speed and competitiveness this past weekend. Not only was Nolan working hard to create offense, but he was also backchecking hard to limit opportunities for the opponent. His complete play has shown great leadership thus far this season for the mite whites, and we look forward to seeing more from him over the remainder of the year. Keep up the great work Nolan!
MITE BLUE
The Mite Blue had a busy and productive weekend of hockey. We started the weekend with a home game against the TRF Black. The boys played a very good game, their best game of the year. Hunter Brownsell was our goalie and played a very good game. He stopped breakaways and one-timers. He made the saves he should have and some that he shouldn’t. He is a big reason we got the win, offensively we attacked the puck and crashed the net for rebounds. We got a couple of dirty goals and some really nice ones as well. Defensively we battled in the corners and won a lot of them, we were tough on our skates and stick and didn’t let them push us around. Scoring for this game was Jacob Biermaier, Bladen Melsa, and Davin Janek with two goals each and Keegan E got one as well.
On Sunday we played a doubleheader against LOW and the first game we played was another good game and coming out with a 7-1 win. We outworked them and got rewarded with some goals against a very good goalie. Hunter was our goalie again and had another good game. He definitely kept us in this game as well and made a lot of high quality saves. Scoring during this game was Asher Vigness and Bladen Melsa with two goals each, Keegan Erickson, Kegan Lessard and Jacob Biermaier each with one. This was another all-around good game with some good teamwork. We made some nice passes and capitalized on our chances.
We ended up with a 4-4 tie the second game with Davin Janek being our goalie. You could tell we were a bit tired after the long weekend and we didn’t do a lot of the little things right. Davin played a pretty good game and seemed to be having a lot of fun in the net. Offensively Keegan Lessard scored 3 goals followed by Keegan Erickson with one against the same good goalie as the game before.
Our player of the week is Keegan Lessard. Keegan played three very good games starting with a strong game at defense on Saturday. Keegan worked hard and listened to the coaches when working at the defensive position. Sunday he followed up his strong defensive game with a couple of good offensive games and was rewarded with 1 goal the first game and three during the second. Keegan didn’t quit on Sunday and worked hard every shift and capitalized on his chances with hard shots and crashing the net for rebounds. Keep up the hard work Keegan both in practice and during the games.
8U
The 8U player of the week is Mercedes Bower. Mercedes is in her first year of 8U and brings a lot of positive energy to practice and games. She has improved a bunch this year and played well in the net for us this past weekend against EGF and TRF. Keep up the good work Mercedes! The 8U will be back at it this Saturday against TRF.
SQUIRTS
1/21/20 – We traveled to Red Lake Falls and left there with an 11-2 victory under our belt, it was a fast-paced game and lots of kids tried different positions and had lots of opportunities! In this game one of our goalies, Tony Elbinger, has wanted to try skating out and did, he even scored a goal!
1/25/20 – We played EGF green at home and took a loss, 10-5, some of our players really skated hard. We need to work on playing positions and working together as a team, but we will get there.
1/26/20 – We played TRF black at home in a very close game, in the end, we took a loss 6-5. These boys are a very spirited group and took these losses very hard on themselves, but they all see room for improvement and we are going to work on giving 100% the entire game. Not one of them is ready to give up!
These kids have made great improvements through the year and many are stepping their game up to a new level, we are also always working on sportsmanship and manners off the ice, which has gone great. The boys are a completely different group than stepped on the ice at the beginning of the year, many important lessons are being learned!!
The player of the week is Braxton Miller. He is one of the boys that has really transformed from our first practice. He is making plays and getting himself where he needs to be and stealing the puck! Keep up the hard work and determination Braxton! You are a great kid and an awesome teammate!!
PEEWEE A
The PeeWee A’s finished off the month of January with two road wins. Thursday night they got a district win over a talented Red Lake Falls team 5-2 and capped the week off with a great team effort versus the Fargo Angels in a 7-2 victory. The PeeWee’s are looking forward to playing some home games this Saturday with Warroad at 12:15 and the St. Paul Capitals at 5:15.
PEEWEE B
The boys had 3 games this past weekend, Saturday morning they played in Hallock. Crookston started out slow allowing goals on the first 2 shifts of the game. Crookston cut the lead when Conner Hanson found an open Isaiah Donarski who buried the puck to put Crookston on the board. Hallock scored again late in the 1st period to take a 3-1 lead into intermission. Crookston started off with a quick goal in the second period to get back within 1, but Hallock answered back a mere 5 seconds later to reclaim their 2 goal lead. It would go back and forth the entire second period, but Crookston was trailing 6-4 at the second intermission. Conner Hanson was able to score early in the 3rd period when he was able to pound in a rebound on a hard shot from Wyatt Marsyla to once again cut the lead to 1. The boys battled hard in the 3rd period looking for the equalizer to include sustained pressure for over 2 minutes with their goalie pulled, but the tieing goal wasn’t in the cards as Crookston fell at Hallock 6-5. Scoring for Crookston was Isaiah Donarski (2G), Masen Reitmeier (1G), Wyatt Marsyla (1G, 1A), Conner Hanson (1G, 1A) and Marcus Narvaez (1A). Dylan Thode finished with 16 saves.
On Sunday Crookston had 2 games against Thief River Falls. TRF Blue was the first game and Crookston was the first to get on the board when Evan Shockman was able to score on a tough angle shot (assisted by Alex Mattson). Unfortunately, that would be the last time Crookston would score as TRF chipped away at the Pirates and ended up winning 9-1.
After a couple of hour break, Crookston was back on the ice, this time against TRF White. Crookston couldn’t buy a goal despite a dominating effort in the 1st period and felt robbed as TRF took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. It took Crookston 8:29 into the 2nd period before Dexter Janek found an open Conner Hanson down low to finally beat a very tough goalie and cut the lead to 3-1. TRF would get the next two goals before Gavin Aakhus was able to find an opening to keep Crookston’s hopes alive late in the 2nd period. The boys remained focused despite being down 5-2 after 2 periods of play. Crookston continued to dominate play in the 3rd period but this time they were rewarded for their efforts, Marcus Narvaez found the back of the net twice (Assists coming from Isaiah Donarski and Gavin Aakhus) to cut TRF’s lead 5-4. Crookston once again found sustained pressure during a long empty-net situation, when finally Conner Hanson was able to find a loose puck in front the net and hammer it home with just 11.8 seconds to play in regulation! Since no games were scheduled behind us, we decided to continue to play into overtime, TRF won the faceoff and was able to capitalize when Crookston’s defenseman tripped up in transition, TRF scored just 11 seconds into OT. In a rare event Jack Buhler played in net for Crookston and despite only having one practice under his belt this season did a very good job between the pipes and ended with 23 saves. Crookston ran into some good goaltending as TRF ended the game with 50 saves!!!
Player of the Week: Marcus Narvaez. Marcus has been asked to play defense and forward throughout this season and he steps into each role without hesitation. He makes his presence known on the scoreboard as he has been a scoring machine when lining up as right-wing. We look forward to his continued success as we inch closer and closer to playoffs. Keep up the great work Marcus!
12U
The 12UB girls started off the week with a game on Tuesday, January 21st. They hosted the Grand Forks 12UB team and played a great game. Starting off the scoring, was Pirate Emma LaPlante on a breakaway goal. Grand Forks answered back, and then took the lead, scoring the next 2 goals in the game. Pirate Hattie Weiland (assist to Claire McDonald) scored one more time, leaving the score tied at 2 at the end of the first period. Alexa Bartrum (assist to Adelia Weiland) scored the lone goal in the 2nd period, and Paige Abrahamson made the final goal, getting an empty netter with 1 minute and 13 seconds left in the game. The final score was 4-2, with the Pirates securing the win. Goaltender for the Pirates was Natalie Longoria, and she had a total of 10 saves on the game.
The 12UA girls had 4 days in a row with games this week, facing tough competition in all of them. Thursday, January 23rd, they hosted the Grand Forks 12UA team. Grand Forks started off the scoring with a little over 30 seconds left in the 1stperiod. It was a very back and forth game, and this goal would leave the Pirates trailing after one period of play, 0-1. Grand Forks scored first again in the 2nd period, making the lead 0-2, before the Pirates, Claire McDonald (assist to Georgia Sanders) scored the first goal for the Pirates. The score was 1-2 after the 2nd period. In the final period, Grand Forks would score again, before the Pirates answered with a goal by Karena Longoria (assist to Georgia Sanders), and the score was 2-3 going into the final minutes of the game. The Pirates pulled their goalie to attempt to tie the game, but a Grand Forks player found an open lane from deep in their zone and shot the full length of the ice to make the game 2-4 final. The goalies both did a great job the whole game, and kept the girls working on both teams! Pirates goaltender, Natalie Longoria, had 17 saves on the game.
Friday, January 24th, the 12UA team traveled to Moorhead. They knew the game would be tough, as Moorhead’s team is ranked 5th in the state. The Pirates scored fast and first, with Georgia Sanders (assist to Ashlyn Bailey) scoring for the Pirates. The Pirate girls played a good hard game and played to the end. The final score was 1-11, and Natalie Longoria had 25 saves on the game.
Saturday, January 25th, the 12UA team hosted Roseau in their first district match-up. Roseau scored first and scored the only goal in the 1st period. The Pirates came back to score the only two goals in the second period. These goals were scored by Addie Fee (assist to Jojo Wallace) and Karena Longoria (assist to Jojo Wallace), and they kept the Rams at bay, making the score 2-1 with the Pirates in the lead after the 2nd period. In the 3rd period, the Rams came out strong and quickly took the lead – they scored 3 goals in the first 7 minutes back on the ice, quickly shifting the momentum of the game. They would score 1 more goal in the remainder of the period, before the Pirates could answer – Ashlyn Bailey (assist to Karena Longoria) scored with a little over 3 minutes left in the game, making the score 3-5. Pirate goalie, Natalie Longoria, had 23 saves on the game.
Sunday, January 26th, the 12UA team hosted Warroad for another district match-up. Warroad scored first, answered by Pirates Addie Fee (unassisted). The Warriors would score again, a short-handed goal, before the Pirates Georgia Sanders (assist to Ashlyn Bailey) would answer on the power play. Warroad scored one more time in the 1st period, making the score 2-3 at the end of the 1st. Warroad scored again to start the 2nd period. This was answered by Pirates Claire McDonald (assist to Addie Fee) before Warroad would answer again to make the final score 3-5 after the 2ndperiod. In the 3rd period, the lone goal was scored by Ashlyn Bailey (unassisted), which made the final score 4-5. The Pirates pulled their goalie again in the final minutes of the game, there was a flurry of shots in the final seconds, with some very close calls that would have tied up the game. The Pirate’s effort was very good throughout the game. They played a hard, physical game, and with a little puck luck, it could have been a different outcome. Pirates net-minder, Natalie Longoria, had 16 saves on the game.
This next week, the 12U girls will be hosting Grand Rapids A & B teams for a full day of hockey on Saturday. The A teams will play at 12:00 & 3:45, and the B teams will play at 1:45 & 5:30. Then Sunday, the A team will travel to Warroad for another face-off at 10:30 a.m.
12UB Player of the Week – Claire McDonald. Claire had an outstanding weekend playing on both 12U teams tallying 3 points with two huge goals against very strong A teams. Claire’s attitude and dedication have earned her much success this season.
12UA Player of the Week – Georgia Sanders. Georgia led the team in points against the toughest week of competition the girls have faced this season. She accomplished this by her exceptional positional play and hard work. Georgia is a forward with Emma L. and Paige A./Claire M.
