The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team struggled to establish much offensive zone time in a 7-1 loss to Grand Forks in a non-section game played at the Eagles Arena in Grand Forks.
Grand Forks dominated possession and zone time in the opening period having no trouble cycling the puck and generating scoring chances. Crookston goaltender Grace Koshney was under heavy pressure in the first period managing 12 saves but allowing one goal. With 6:09 left in the period, the Knight Riders Shelby Richards shuffled the puck through heavy traffic beating Koshney after assists from Payton Kriewald and Emily Benson giving Grand Forks a 1-0 lead. Despite minimal offensive zone time, Crookston managed to tie the game with 4:13 left in the period when Aleah Bienek took a pass from Nora Peterson and pressed the puck into the net tying the game at 1-1. “Aleah Bienek went to the net she kind of got her foot on it a little bit,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe. “The goaltender kicked out the puck and Aleah, I thought she got her foot on it, but she said she got her stick on it before it crossed the goal line. She went hard to the net and was rewarded for it.” Crookston was outshot 13-4 in the first period and took two penalties in the opening 17 minutes but entered the first intermission tied 1-1. “Even in the first period, we were outshot pretty significantly,” said Moe. “We just could not get the puck to the net. We have kids that don’t want to shoot it, they want to make that extra move, and even in our zone, I don’t know if it’s we’re not strong enough, or what but we had a hard time getting the puck out of our zone. We’ve got to get more confident with the puck, but we’ve also got to get stronger.”
Grand Forks continued to keep the puck in the Crookston zone for the majority of the second period. The Pirates were limited to two shots in the period while the Knight Riders tested Koshney with 16 second period shots. Grand Forks regained the lead late in the period when Jessica Lee found the back of the net on a goal set up by Haily Stenberg and Shaley Richards giving the hosts a 2-1 lead after two periods of play. “It’s that long shift again,” explained Moe. “The second period has been our nemesis. If we could just find a way to get out of the second period, I liked our chances in the third, but we weren’t able to. We got caught on a long change again, and that goes back to the inability to get the puck out of the zone and get off the ice or get a whistle when we needed to.”
With 14:14 left to play, Crookston returned to the penalty kill trying to remain within one goal of the Knight Riders in the third period. The Pirates managed to kill the penalty and get back to full strength, but that didn’t prevent Grand Forks from adding to their lead. With 11:02 left to play a wrist shot bounced off the chest pad of Crookston goaltender Grace Koshney and Grand Forks’ Maya Tellman batted the loose puck off the ice and into the net giving the Knight Riders a 3-1 lead. Grand Forks continued to separate with 8:50 to play when Morgan Stenseth scored the Knight Riders fourth goal with assists from Kylie Autrey and Katelin Petersen. Less than one minute later, Stenseth scored her second goal with another assist from Autrey giving the hosts a 5-1 lead with 7:51 to play. Grand Forks continued to add to its lead with 1:36 to play when Lauren Robinson scored off a feed from Payton Kriewald making it 6-1. Kylie Autrey added the final exclamation point to the final period scoring with 21-seconds remaining to close out the 7-1 win. “We kept losing kids in the offensive zone,” summarized Moe. “I think they smelled blood in the water and they just kept sending defenseman in, and we just didn’t do a good enough job playing in the defensive zone. We have drills in practice where we work on finding people. I can’t want it more than them, if we want to get better and continue to grow as a team, it has to start with them. We have to play defense and work harder at getting the puck out of the zone and doing the positive things that we talk about.”
Crookston falls to 2-13-1. The Pirates return to the ice on Tuesday night when Crookston hosts section foe Park Rapids at 6:00 p.m. with the Riverview Health Pregame show beginning at 5:30 p.m. on KROX. Grand Forks improves to 7-7.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Final | |
| Crookston | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Forks | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
1st Period
6:09 – Grand Forks – Shelby Richards (Payton Kriewald, Emily Benson)
4:13 – Crookston – Aleah Bienek (Nora Peterson)
2nd Period
3:58 – Grand Forks – Jessica Lee (Haily Stenberg, Shaley Richards
3rd Period
11:02 – Grand Forks – Megan Jacobson (Payton Kriewald)
8:50 – Grand Forks – Morgan Stenseth (Kylie Autrey, Katelin Petersen)
7:51 – Grand Forks – Morgan Stenseth (Kylie Autrey)
1:36 – Grand Forks – Lauren Robinson (Payton Kriewald)
0:21 – Grand Forks – Kylie Autrey (Morgan Stenseth)
| Saves | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final |
| Grace Koshney – Crookston | 12 | 16 | 8 | 36 |
| Kendra Nordick – Grand Forks | 3 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
