The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team cut a 5-goal deficit down to 2 in the 3rd period but did not have enough as the Thief River Falls Prowlers held on for a 7-4 win at Ralph Englestad Arena on Tuesday night.
FIRST PERIOD
As the first period began, both teams traded blows with odd-man rushes, but the goaltenders for each side stepped up to the task. After the Pirates were unsuccessful on the power play, they committed a penalty, but were able to successfully kill it. The action came with under 7 minutes to go in the period. The Pirates committed another penalty, and this time Jed Kelly broke through the Pirate penalty kill to put the Prowlers up 1-0. Just over 2 minutes later, the Prowlers got their first 5-on-5 goal of the night, sniped from the blue line by Weston Olson to put them up 2-0. It looked like the period would come to an end on that score, but in the final minute, the Pirates committed their third penalty of the period, and Spencer Anderson scored with 4 seconds remaining to give the Prowlers a 3-0 lead at the end of the period.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period could not have started any better for the Pirates, as just 70 seconds in, Greyson Ecker executed a beautiful backhander over TRF goalie Cooper Roff to put the Pirates on the board, cutting the lead to 3-1 and giving the Pirates momentum. For the first few minutes of the period, the Pirates looked like a completely different team. However, TRF was able to adjust, and rattled off 3 goals in just over 4 minutes in the middle of the period. The first one was scored by Ian Winter on a great individual effort, and the last two were scored by Spencer Anderson, giving him a hat trick for the game. The latter of those two was on the power play, making TRF 3/4 on the power play to this point. The Porwlers rattled off 6 shots on goal in the final 2 minutes, but Teegyn Johnson stopped them all, and the game stayed at 6-1 headed into the third period.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period turned out completely different than the first two periods. Immediately, the Prowlers committed a penalty, and Jay Reese scored 35 seconds into the period on the power play to cut the lead down to 6-2. The game slowed down for the next few minutes, but then at 5:27, TRF committed 2 penalties before a whistle, giving the Pirates 2 minutes of 5-on-3. They were able to cash in with Garrett Fischer, and the lead was down to 6-3. After the Pirates then had their second successful penalty kill, Garrett Fischer made a brilliant move at 12:53 to get the Pirates closer, cutting the lead to 6-4 and forcing TRF to use their timeout. However, this would be the last of the Pirate magic, as the Prowler defense stepped up, and Spencer Anderson’s 4th goal of the night into the empty net sealed the deal, giving the Prowlers a 7-4 victory.
Crookston Falls to 8-3-1 on the year and will take on EGF on Thursday. TRF is now 7-6 on the year.
JV – TRF won 6-1
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Thief River Falls | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
1st Period
10:36 – TRF (PP) – Jed Kelly
12:42 – TRF – Weston Olson (Johnathan Rogalla)
16:56 – TRF (PP) – Spencer Anderson (Hudson Brouse, Johnathan Rogalla)
2nd Period
1:10 – Crookston – Greyson Ecker (Jay Reese)
5:59 – TRF – Ian Winter (Spencer Anderson, Hudson Brouse)
7:51 – TRF – Spencer Anderson (Hudson Brouse)
10:03 – TRF (PP) – Spencer Anderson (Hudson Brouse)
3rd Period
0:35 – Crookston (PP) – Jay Reese (Garrett Fischer)
6:03 – Crookston (PP) – Garrett Fischer (Tate Hamre, Greyson Ecker)
12:53 – Crookston – Garrett Fischer (Gavin Aakhus, Cody Demerais)
16:08 – TRF (EN) – Spencer Anderson
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Cooper Roff – TRF | 10 | 9 | 11 | 30 |
| Teegyn Johnson – Crox | 9 | 14 | 3 | 26 |
