The Crookston Pirates Boy’s Hockey team traveled all the way to International Falls on Saturday to play the International Falls Broncos in one of their last regular-season games. Crookston played with the lead the entire game, and scored two empty-net goals late to win 5-2, and earn their second straight victory. “It’s always nice to go back to my hometown and play the Broncos,” said Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy who is an International Falls graduate. “It feels even better when we get the win.”
FIRST-PERIOD –
Crookston picked up right where they left off on Tuesday, scoring a goal just 2:10 into the game, as Alex Longoria was able to beat the goaltender to give the Pirates an early 1-0 lead. Jackson Demarais and Jack Doda earned assists on the goal. The rest of the period was highlighted by the defense, as Crookston was able to kill off a penalty, and after a few nice saves from both goaltenders, the Pirates would take a 1-0 lead into the second period. International Falls outshot the Pirates 17-6 in the first period.
SECOND-PERIOD –
Crookston’s penalty kill was sensational the entire game, as they would kill off three penalties in the middle frame, and a total of five in the hockey game. “We were on the penalty kill too much today,” said Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy. “However we did a great job stepping up and getting the kills. Had guys diving everywhere to block shots.” With 8:05 remaining in the period, International Falls would commit a penalty, giving the Pirates a man advantage. Crookston would take advantage and score the only Power Play goal of the game to make it 2-0. Once again it was Alex Longoria, giving him both Pirates goals. Jaren Bailey continued his Steller play in the net, not allowing the International Falls offense to get rolling, and Crookston would head into the third period in control 2-0. “Jaren was fantastic all game long,” said Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy. “He put us in a position to win the game.”
THIRD-PERIOD –
The Broncos wouldn’t go away without a run however and would score two goals in the span of 20 seconds to tie the game. The first goal came at the 4:18 mark of the period, and immediately after the next faceoff, the Broncos came down the ice and found the back of the net again making it a 2-2 game with over 12 minutes remaining. Crookston settled down, and after some back-and-forth hockey, would take the lead for good with 7:12 left to play. Once again it was the Pirates top-line doing the damage, as Jack Doda got in on the fun scoring his first goal of the day, with assists going to Alex Longoria and Zach Tahran. As the time continued to dwindle, the Broncos would pull their goalie, allowing Crookston to score two empty-net goals by Jack Doda and Jackson Demarais in the final 2 minutes for a final score of 5-2. “It was nice to see Jackson (Demarais) get his first Varsity goal,” said Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy. For Crookston, it was the first time this season they’ve been able to win back-to-back games. “We didn’t necessarily play our best today but we got the job done,” said Pirates Head Coach Josh Hardy. “We finally won a game when we didn’t play our best and I’m proud of that.”
Jaren Bailey got the start in net for the Pirates and earned the victory with a stellar performance of 37 saves while allowing just 2 goals. Ty Shoberg was the Broncos goalie for the day, and he made 26 saves while allowing 3 goals in the losing effort.
Crookston improves to 5-16-1 on the season and will be back in action on Monday afternoon inside the Crookston Sports Center when they host Lake of the Woods. The Pirates were supposed to host Lake of the Woods on Friday before inclement weather forced the two teams to reschedule the contest for next week. The puck will drop at 4:00 p.m. and the game can be heard on KROX starting with the RiverView Health pregame show at 3:30 p.m. The game will also be on the KROX Live Video Stream. International Falls drops to 5-16 with the loss.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | |
| CROOKSTON | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| International Falls | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
1st Period
2:10 – Crox – Alex Longoria (Jackson Demarais, Jack Doda)
2nd Period
10:33 – Crox – Alex Longoria (unassisted) PP
3rd Period
4:18 – IF – C. Joslyn (M. Dremmel)
4:38 – IF – M. Dremmel (C. Kostink, N. Dremmel)
9:48 – Crox – Jack Doda (Alex Longoria, Zach Tahran)
15:05 – Crox – Jackson Demarais (unassisted) EN
16:20 – Crox – Jack Doda (Isaac Telle, Jackson Demarais) EN
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Jaren Bailey – Crookston | 17 | 8 | 12 | 37 |
| Ty Shoberg – IFalls | 5 | 11 | 10 | 26 |
