Ben Andringa had a hat trick and an assist as Crookston Pirates Boy’s Hockey defeated the Park Rapids Panthers 7-0 in a Section 8A game played at the Crookston Sports Center.
The Pirates and Park Rapids played an even opening ten minutes Thursday night before the Pirates went on the power play with 6:24 to go in the first period. The Pirates scored 23 seconds into the power play when Joey Doda fed Brock Heppner at the top of the crease and he beat the Park Rapids goaltender through the five-hole to give Crookston a 1-1 lead with 6:01 to go in the period. “I thought we had a lot of good zone play in the first period, we carried the play in their zone quite a bit,” said Pirate coach Josh Hardy. “We didn’t do a very good job of having anything to show for it, maybe being too cute and it was a little hairy there until Brock had the first one which was nice to see as he’s been struggling a little bit later in terms of scoring goals. In the first, I don’t know if we were as good as we could’ve been, but as we went on we got a little better.” Late in the period Andringa carried the puck in along the right side and fired a wrist shot past a defender that glanced off the upper half of the goaltender’s stick into the net to give Crookston a 2-0 lead with 1:30 left in the period. “We knew the goaltender was shaky because they didn’t have their main goaltender,” said Andringa. “Hardy thought we should get the puck on net so coming down I decided to take the shot and it got to the back of the net. That’s what we were looking for on that one.” The Pirates led 2-0 after one period.
The Pirates would score early in the second as Andringa skated down the left side and fired a low wrist shot on net towards the far post that glanced off the goaltender to make it 3-0 with 15:37 to play in the 2nd period. “The goaltender was new, we knew he wasn’t good going side-to-side,” said Andringa. “I thought I’d throw it on the ice for him and it just hit his skate and went in.” Eric Delorme would extend the lead just 59 seconds later with a backhander for the bottom of the left circle toward the far post that went over the goaltenders’ glove to make it 4-0. “It was nice to see, now we’re at 4-0 and we’re able to open up the bench a little bit, get some of these other guys involved,” said Hardy. “We’re pretty confident we’ll be able to hold onto a 4-0 lead and it was nice to get that done early and get some of these guys some nice quality reps out there. Hopefully, that serves us well in the future.” Andringa would complete the hat trick with 3:52 to go in the second when Kaleb Thingelstad fired a shot wide left that bounced off the end boards out to the right side of the net and Andringa was first to the puck to chip it home for a 5-0 lead. “Kaleb Thingelstad, a newbie, comes in the zone and he has good hands, I love his hands,” said Andringa. “He throws it on the net, misses, it goes off the back and just pops out right there for me and I burned the defender to tap it in.” The Pirates lead 5-0 after two periods.
In the third period, the Pirates would again score quickly after Andringa got pinched into the boards with the puck, made a spin move and got the puck to Jack Doda in the left circle and he fired it past the goaltender for a 6-0 lead with 15:42. With the running clock enacted, Joey Doda came down the right side and lifted a puck just under the crossbar for an unassisted goal with 14:13 to go in the third and a 7-0 lead. “Jack had a nice one there, Joey lost an edge, slid into the boards got up, got the puck and went down and had a beautiful shot so that was nice to see,” said Hardy. “I thought at that point we mixed up the lines a little bit, moved Jake Anderson up to forward for a while trying to get him on the board and started playing Mason and Kaleb every other shift. It was a good opportunity to get guys into different positions, see how they look and not be in a knock-down drag-out with a big one coming up on Saturday.” Noah Dragseth picked up his first career win making 19 saves in the shutout.
Crookston improves to 3-11-1 and will have a big Section 8A matchup on Saturday when they host the Warroad Warriors at 3:00 p.m. at the Crookston Sports Center in a game that can be heard on KROX. Park Rapids falls to 2-13.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Park Rapids | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CROOKSTON | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
1st Period
6:01 – Crookston – Brock Heppner (Joey Doda) (PP)
1:30 – Crookston – Ben Andringa (Quinn Westlake)
2nd Period
15:16 – Crookston – Ben Andringa (Quin Westlake)
14:38 – Crookston – Eric Delorme (12) (Brock Heppner, Joey Doda)
3:52 – Crookston – Ben Andringa (Ty Hamre, Kaleb Thingelstad)
3rd Period
15:42 – Crookston – Jack Doda (Quinn Westlake, Ben Andringa)
14:10 – Crookston – Joey Doda (unassisted)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Noah Dragseth – Crookston | 9 | 4 | 6 | 19 |
| Logan Arndt – Park Rapids | 10 | 13 | 6 | 29 |
