CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY BEATS TRF FOR A BIG SECTION 8A VICTORY

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team jumped out to a 3-0 lead and Thief River Falls came back with two goals, the second with just under four and a half minutes to go in the game. Crookston was able to add an open net goal with 17 seconds left to secure an important 4-2 win over Thief River Falls in a Section 8A game that makes it a sweep over the Prowlers during the regular season, this one at the Cardin-Hunt Arena in Red Lake Falls, who coop’s with Thief River Falls.

FIRST PERIOD
Crookston came out blazing the first period and had Thief River Falls on their heels most of the period. They scored just three minutes into the game when Aleah Bienek, Pirate senior captain, put a rebound past Red Lake Falls goalie Bell Hamre to make it a 1-0 lead. “It was good to see us come out so strong in the period,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “we didn’t do that against Roseau and we knew what happened there, so the girl’s were determined not to let it happen again tonight and they didn’t.”
A couple of notes on Crookston, they haven’t been scoring many power-play goals this year and also overall goals thus far this season. Because of this, coach Meyer decided to bring Reese Swanson up to the forward position, “We know before that Reese worked so well with Aleah and Addie (Fee), and last Saturday we had moved Morgan Nelson up to a wing as well. I think we saw some positive effects of the two offensively. Also, our defense had to pick it up as well with Cassie Solheim and Dillynn Wallace moved back there and they played well tonight.” This came to fruition on the Crookston second goal was a Swanson snapshot past the goalie with an assist from Nelson when the Pirates scored 24 seconds into the power play and with just over two minutes left in the period, Crookston opened up a 2-0 lead.” It was nice to score on the power play,” said Meyer. “We really played well with all three lines playing well and Kailee playing well too. We felt good in the locker room, but you can’t let your guard down and have to go out in the second and keep it going.” The official scorers had the shots 8 to 7 favoring Thief River Falls?? That seemed a little off track, but most of Magsam’s saves were from center ice dump-ins.

SECOND PERIOD
Not to be outdone by a transplant forward, Nelson would score four and a half minutes into the second period on a rebound of an Ashlyn Bailey shot to make it 3-0.” Morgan has really been playing well,” said coach Meyer, “she has great anticipation, skates well and knows the game.” It was the fourth goal of the year for the sophomore. Crookston would get into some penalty problems and skated short-handed five on three for 21 seconds. Thief River Falls didn’t score on the 5 on 3, but they did score on their 5 on 4. Carli Prickett, also a converted forward from the defensive side, scored from a quick rebound goal on a shot from Quinn Kenfield and it was 3-1 about halfway through the second period. “Even though it was only a few seconds on their two-man power play, it gave them some rhythm on the power play, and unfortunately they were able to score, “said Meyer. “We felt good with the 3-1 lead after two periods, but also knew they weren’t going to go away, so we had to keep playing our game.”

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston picked it up again in the third period having a lot of offensive zone time, but as both coaches said before the game, “we are having trouble scoring goals, we’re getting chances but seem to shoot right into the goalie’s belly!” Nobody would score for the first 12 and a half minutes but would expire as the Prowlers were putting some great pressure in the Crookston end and then Gretchen Cota tipped a pass back to the blue line, and steady senior defenseman, Danielle Niebuhr blasted a slap shot past Magsam to pull the Prowlers within 3-2 with 4:22 left in regulation. Thief River Falls ramped up the offensive in the next couple of minutes with some good opportunities including one shot close in point-blank that Magsam turned aside! Thief River Falls called their time out and with about 1:20 left in the game, they pulled their goalie. Crookston didn’t get it out of their zone for a while, but eventually, Nelson found Brekken Tull at center ice with a pass and Tull kept going into the Prowlers end and put the shot into the open net to give Crookston the insurance goal with 17 seconds to go and give Crookston a 4-2 in over Thief River Falls. “It was an important win for us in the Section,” said Meyer, “winning both games against Thief River Falls is big as we want to get into the number two seed behind Warroad. We have two games left with East Grand Forks, a couple with Detroit Lakes, and one left with International Falls in the Section. We also want to get on a road with some wins as we head to the last month of the season.”

Crookston has some winnable games this week when they play Jamestown, N.D. in a game at Mayville, N.D. on Friday and then back home to host Northern Lakes, who the Pirates beat in November 4-1 in Pequot Lakes. Crookston is 7-5-1 on the year. Thief River Falls drops to 3-9-2 and will be at Moorhead on Thursday and host Section 8A opponent International Falls on Saturday.
JV – Thief River Falls won 3-2