The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team couldn’t complete a 3rd period and lost to the International Falls Broncos by a score of 5-3 on Saturday Afternoon.
FIRST PERIOD
The first period went by with relatively little action, with both teams getting few shots on goal. The Broncos got a few shots on goal early, but Brady Chandler stopped everything he saw. The Broncos also prevented the Pirates from pushing towards Caleb Joslyn in net, only keeping the Pirates to 5 shots. There were no penalties in the period, and no goals as well, as the bulk of the action in this game came in the final two periods.
SECOND PERIOD
The first half of the second period went by the same way as the entirety of the first period, except the Pirates flipped things around on offense, getting more shots that the Broncos in the period, by a total of 14 to 6. However, the Broncos were the first team to score, as Chase Phillips cashed in a goal to put International Falls up 1-0. The lead lasted less than two minutes, though, as Gavin Aakhus scored in the midst of a change, and that tied things up at 1. However, immediately after that goal was scored, the Broncos got it back immediately off the faceoff, as William Yerxa scored to give the Broncos the lead back at 2-1. Even though the Broncos committed a head contact major penalty, the Pirates couldn’t score, and the game stayed at 2-1 headed into the 3rd period.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period was w wild one as the teams combined for five goals. Just over three minutes into the period, Crookston tied the game at 2-2 when Garrett Fischer scored. IFalls countered with a goal 27 seconds later to take a 3-2 lead. A little over a minute later, the Broncos added another goal to take a big 4-2 lead. The scoring frenzy continued as Crookston scored a goal 19 seconds later as Greyson Ecker scored a power play goal on an assist from Fischer to get within a 4-3 deficit. The scoring stopped for the next nine minutes until International Falls got an open net goal with less than three minutes left in the game and held on to win 5-3.
Crookston drops to 13-8-1 on the year and will take on Detroit Lakes on Monday evening. You can hear the game on KROX Radio. International Falls improves to 16-1-2 on the year.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| International Falls | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
1st Period
No scoring.
2nd Period
9:07 – I-Falls – Chase Phillips (Gage Wallander, Paxson Sivonen
10:51 – Crookston – Gavin Aakhus (Garrett Fischer, Isaiah Donarski)
11:00 – I-Falls – William Yerxa (Bauer Lindvall, Brodie Baldwin)
3rd Period
3:10 – Crookston – Garrett Fischer (Greyson Ecker, Jay Reese)
3:37 – I-Falls – Gage Wallander (Andrew Eide)
4:53 – I-Falls – Andrew Eide (Zach Youso, Adien Lehman)
5:12 – Crookston – Greyson Ecker (Garrett Fischer) (PP)
14:16 – I-Falls – Gage Wallander (Andrew Eide, Chase Phillips) (Empty net)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Brady Chandler – Crox | 9 | 4 | 9 | 22 |
| Caleb Joslyn – I-Falls | 5 | 13 | 5 | 23 |
