sports

CROOKSTON BOY’S HOCKEY FORCES OT AND EARNS 6-6 TIE WITH KITTSON COUNTY CENTRAL

December 10, 2021

The Crookston Pirates Boy’s Hockey team traveled to Hallock on Friday night to battle the Kittson County Central (KCC) Bearcats. The Pirates were looking for their first win of the season, and while they didn’t win the game, they also didn’t skate away with a loss. The two teams played a wild game that ended in a 6-6 OT tie. Kadin Edwards, Ty Larson, and Zach Tahran all scored their first career varsity goals in the game.

FIRST-PERIOD –

The Pirates were without both Alex Longoria and Carter Trudeau tonight who are two of the top skaters on the team and may have gotten off to a slow start because of it. KCC scored the first two goals of the game, both by Landon Sugden. Tyler Hennen who came into the contest tied for 9th in scoring in the state with eight goals and seven assists would pick up an assist in both of Sugden’s goals. At the 12:42 mark of the period, the Pirates got on the board on a goal from Jack Doda. It was the second goal of the season for Crookston and Ty Larson along with Zach Tahran were credited with the assists. A few minutes later the Bearcats would extend their lead on a Tyler Hennen goal to take a 3-1 lead. The score would remain 3-1 KCC heading into the second period.

SECOND-PERIOD –

Crookston Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy noted it was a fun game to be a part of, and the Pirates needed to show a lot of grit to come back from being down 3-1, which is exactly what they did. After a quiet start to the second period, the Pirates would score three goals in the span of 55 seconds! to take a 4-3 lead. First, it was Zach Tahran scoring his first career varsity goal to pull Crookston within 1. Following that was Kadin Edwards who also scored his first career varsity goal to tie the game at 3-3, and then shortly after that Jack Doda gave the Pirates the lead with his second goal of the game. A few minutes later at the 12:01 mark of the period, Crookston would score their fourth straight goal, as this time it was Ty Larson who found the back of the net. Larson became the third different Pirate to score his first career varsity goal in the game. KCC wouldn’t skate out the period empty-handed, as with just 1:13 remaining in the period, Landon Sugden completed the hat trick and Tyler Hennen got his fourth point in the game to pull the Bearcats within 1. That would conclude the scoring in a wild second period, and the Pirates would take a 5-4 lead into the third period.

THIRD-PERIOD –

5:46 into the third period KCC would tie the game on Landon Sugden’s fourth goal of the night. Tyler Hennen would earn the assist for his fifth point of the evening. A few minutes later Tyler Hennen would score his second goal of the night with 7:26 remaining to give the Bearcats a 6-5 lead. Faced with adversity once again the Pirates could’ve caved, instead, it took only 19 seconds to rise to the challenge. Ashton Shockman would score on a pass from Kadin Edwards and tie the game at 6-6 with 7:07 remaining in the game. After nobody could find the scoreboard in the final 7:07 of regulation, the two teams skated into overtime.

Neither team could beat the opposing goalie in the overtime frame, and the game ended in a 6-6 tie. It was a game that saw 3 lead changes and 3 ties, with Crookston scoring four straight goals at one point, and KCC responding with 3 of their own. Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy noted he was a little disappointed with the tie after how well they played in the second period but said it’s a step in the right direction and he was happy with how the Pirates competed and skated.

Crookston moves to 0-2-1 on the season and will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they host Two Rivers. The puck will drop at 1:00 p.m. from inside the Crookston Sports Center and the game can be heard on KROX or live-streamed on kroxam.com with the RiverView Health pre-game show starting at 12:30 p.m. Kittson County Central moves to 3-1-1 with the tie.

	1st	2nd	3rd	OT	Total
CROOKSTON	1	4	1	0	6
Kittson County Central	3	1	2	0	6

1st Period
4:53 – KCC – Landon Sugden (Tyler Hennen)
9:15 – KCC – Landon Sugden (Tyler Hennen, Gavin Johnson)
12:42 – CROX – Jack Doda (Ty Larson, Zach Tahran)
14:56 – KCC – Tyler Hennen (Gavin Johnson)

2nd Period
8:59 – CROX – Zach Tahran (Thor Harbott)
9:21 – CROX – Kadin Edwards (Ty Larson)
9:54 – CROX – Jack Doda (Zach Tahran)
12:01 – CROX – Ty Larson (Ashton Shockman)
15:47 – KCC – Landon Sugden (Tyler Hennen)