PIRATES BOYS HOCKEY FALL 7-2 TO TARTAN

The Tartan Titans scored in the opening minute of Saturday’s game and never looked back taking down the Crookston Pirates 7-2 at Tartan Arena in Oakdale. 

Tartan took the opening faceoff deep into the Pirates and was buzzing around the net before Max John Cashin walked down from the left faceoff dot and ripped a shot off the far post into the net for a 1-0 lead with 16:17 to go in the first period.  The lead would stretch to 2-0 at 11:58 to go in the period when Landen Schwantes fed a lead pass to Marshal Ahn who came through the left circle and lifted a backhander over the stick-side shoulder of Pirate goaltender Carter Nelson.  “We dug ourselves a hole again,” said Hardy.  “It looked like we were standing in jelly out there.  We are beating ourselves and that’s frustrating.” The rest of the period would be played evenly and the Pirates were able to cut the Tartan led in half in the final minute of the period when Jack Doda stole a puck inside the blue line and fired a shot on goal.  The rebound flitted out to the right of the goal and Ben Andringa picked the puck up and carried it into the corner before centering for Alex Longoria out front who was able to tickle the twine for his first varsity goal making it 2-1 after one period.  “At times we looked great and that was the discussion we had after the first period,” said Hardy.  “Absolutely terrible start but I thought we finished strong and looked like a competitive hockey team.  It was nice to see Al get on the board.” The Pirates outshot Tartan 13-8 in the first period. 

Tartan extended its lead in short order in the second period.  The Titans opened the period on the power-play and Jacob Schwinghammer fed Chet Bertelson the puck in front of the net and Bertelson fired a shot on goal that Nelson looked to stop with the blocker but the puck rolled over the top of the blocker and into the goal for a 3-1 lead with 15:28 to go in the second. The lead for the Titans would continue to grow their lead when they sent Bo Strecker on a breakaway up ice with a pass off the wall, but Carter Nelson was there to stone him cold.  The Titans would get the rebound though, and Brandon Olssen fed the puck to the left point for Braden Fairbanks who fired a shot through traffic that was redirected into the back of the net for a 4-1 lead with 9:27 to go in the period.  The Pirates would get a late power-play but were unable to score and finished the power-play by taking their own penalty when Noah Kiel was called for roughing behind the play setting up three seconds of four-on-four hockey. As the four-on-four expired the Pirates cleared the puck and Titan goaltend Jack Cashin came out of the net to play to the pick and fired a pass to Marshal Ahn crossing right to left through the neutral zone and Ahn took the pass straight down the left side before wiring a wrist shot past Nelson from the left dot for a power-play goal and a 5-1 lead with 1:19 to play in the period.  The second period would end with a lot of commotion that began with a Pirate being knocked down in front of his own bench and end with several players on the ice in front of the Tartan bench.  “It was a tough second period for us,” said Hardy.  “We can’t be in the box.  I don’t know that were necessarily undisciplined, the calls just weren’t going our way for lack of a better term.  It was frustrating to have that kind of period.  We reverted back to a lot of the same mistakes we’ve made throughout the period.  That was the conversation after the second period. We keep talking about these things, correcting them, and then we don’t put them into games.  It’s going to come and we’re going better and recognize it but it’s frustrating for everybody involved when we’re not playing to our potential.” Each team received a single minor penalty from the altercation.  The Titans outshot Crookston 13-9 in the second period.  

Neither team would score during the four-on-four to open the third and play continued back and forth before Ben Andringa was called for his third minor penalty of the game for interference with 11:31 to play.  The penalty kill for the Pirates would be one of their best two-minute stretches of the game as they had several scoring opportunities.  They would capitalize when Noah Kiel passed the puck forward to Jack Doda at the defensive blue line and Doda carried through the neutral zone before being punished with an open-ice hit at the Tartan blue line.  As he was going down Doda was able to push the puck off toward the center of the ice and Quinn Westlake showed a nice burst gaining a step on the defense skating down the slot and lifting a shot under the crossbar as he was dragged down to pull the Pirates within three at 5-2 with 10:52 to play.  “It was a great goal by Quinn,” said Hardy.  “Jack got laid out on a dangerous hit at the blue line I thought could’ve gone our way as well.  But Quinn comes back and makes a beauty of a goal.  He’s been a little snake-bitten this year as well which seems to be a theme for our team.” The Pirates weren’t able to capitalize on the momentum, however, as back-to-back penalties would keep the Pirates shorthanded for more the next four minutes before the Titans struck with their third power-play goal of the game.  “I thought we had a bunch of good opportunities (short-handed),” said Hardy.  “Ben almost clanged on in.  We had another scramble in front of the net that we just couldn’t quite get.  We had opportunities to get this game closer but towards the end of the game it just got away from us.” The Pirates would try to get the puck out of the zone but Fairbanks took the puck away and fed a pass to Schwantes in the right circle who fired it into the net to make it 6-2 with 5:53 to play.  Tartan would add a goal with 21 seconds to play as they were cycling the puck around the Pirates zone when Breck Putizer flipped a wrist shot through traffic off Nelson’s glove and into the net for a 7-2 win.  Tartan outshot Crookston 8-4 in the third period. 

Tartan improved to 3-2 with the win.  The Pirates fall to 0-6 and will continue their tough opening stretch as they’ll host #3 East Grand Forks Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Crookston Sports Center.

1st Period
16:17 – Tartan – Max John Cashin (Brock Bertelson)
11:58 – Tartan – Marshal Ahn (Landen Schwantes)
:36 – Crookston – Alex Longoria (1) (Ben Andringa, Jack Doda) 

2nd Period
15:28 – Tartan – Chet Bertelson (Jacob Schwinghammer, Brandon Olssen) PP
9:27 – Tartan – Braden Fairbanks (Brandon Olssen, Dylan Kissner)
1:19 – Tartan – Marshal Ahn (Jack Cashin) PP

3rd Period
10:52 – Crookston – Quinn Westlake (1) (Jack Doda, Noah Kiel) SH
5:53 – Tartan – Landen Schwantes (Braden Fairbanks, Brock Bertelson)
:23 – Tartan – Breck Putzier (Cameron Sachs)