The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team played some of their best hockey all season on Monday night as nine different players recorded goals en route to a 10-0 victory over the Park Rapids Area Panthers at Ted O. Johnson Ice Arena.
FIRST PERIOD –
The first period started out lightning fast for the Pirates, as just 1:07 into the game, Grant Funk scored from the blue line to give the Pirates the early lead and himself his first career varsity goal. The Panthers were missing many pieces, including their top 3 scorers and top 2 goaltenders, and Crookston was able to capitalize on that many times throughout the game. They dominated faceoffs and puck possession, and they capitalized again in the middle of the period with a Gavin Aakhus goal to make it 2-0. Then, at the end of the period at 14:41, a Liam Larson goal made it 3-0 at the end of the first period, making it the first period all year that the Pirates scored multiple goals in a period, with none of them coming from their top line.
SECOND PERIOD –
The top line decided to add themselves to the scoresheet immediately to start the second period, as just 1:29 in, Greyson Ecker scored on a beautiful feed from Garrett Fischer to make the score 4-0. That would end up being the first of five goals that the Pirates would score in this period. Jay Reese scored twice in the period, making himself the only player tonight to record multiple goals, with one of them being shorthanded and the other on the power play. Tate Hamre scored unassisted to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead. Then, up 7-0, Teagan Lubinski scored in the final 30 seconds of the period to give the Pirates an 8-0 lead into the intermission. More importantly, that goal was assisted by Joey Walski, but also by Isaiah Donarski, recording his first varsity assist.
THIRD PERIOD –
The third period started and ended with running time, so the events were fairly limited throughout the period. A super cool moment for Park Rapids was getting seventh-grader Blake Wesa out on the ice. Standing at 4’11”, he played much taller than he was, breaking up spinning pass attempts by Jay Reese, blocking two shots, and nearly getting an assist on a shot by Gus Pedersen that grazed off the post. Crookston was able to add two goals in the final minutes; the first one from Connor Hanson and the second one from Ryan Street. All of this led to Crookston leaving Park Rapids with a 10-0 victory.
Crookston improves to 11-7-1 on the season, 7-3-1 in the section, and will host Hockey Fights Cancer night on Friday. Park Rapids falls to 6-13, 2-7 in section play.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Park Rapids | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1st Period
1:07 – CROX – Grant Funk (Tate Hamre)
6:51 – CROX – Gavin Aakhus (unassisted)
14:41 – CROX – Liam Larson (Gavin Aakhus)
2nd Period
1:29 – CROX – Greyson Ecker (Garrett Fischer)
5:41 – CROX – Jay Reese (Grant Funk)
13:13 – CROX – Tate Hamre (unassisted)
15:15 – CROX – Jay Reese (Garrett Fischer) (PP)
16:30 – CROX – Teagan Lubinski (Joey Walski, Isaiah Donarski)
3rd Period
14:42 – CROX – Connor Hanson (Grant Funk)
16:12 – CROX – Ryan Street (Jay Reese)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Parker Kelly – Crox | 6 | 7 | 6 | 19 |
| Rylie Wesa – PR | 16 | 12 | 6 | 34 |
