sports

CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY CRUISE TO A WIN OVER EGF

December 20, 2022

It was 500 games ago tonight that the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team started playing the sport as a High School team in 2003!! They might have lost their first game to Detroit Lakes that night on the road, lost the next night at Warroad, and won their first game against Lake of the Woods. Tonight the Pirates dominated their rival East Grand Forks in a 7-1 win at the Crookston Sports Center.

FIRST PERIOD
The question tonight for Crookston was how they would come out after not playing for 10 days.
That was answered 35 seconds into the game when sophomore defenseman Kaylie Clauson’s wrist shot found its way from the blue line, on the ice, into the Green Wave net for a 1-0 early lead. “I was really excited and was just trying to get a shot on net,” said Clauson, “and when it went in, I was excited because our line said one of the things we wanted to do is score on the first shift, which we did.” Clauson was set up by a crisp on the ice pass from the left of the Green Wave net by Brekken Tull, which found Clauson, “I saw a lot of people in front of the net screening, so I thought on the ice would be the best bet, and it went in.” Four minutes later, Reese Swanson let a big slap shot go from the far blue line and went top shelf to the other side of the goal to make it 2-0. “That’s one of the things we wanted to work on was putting the pressure on early and keeping it going,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, ” East Grand Forks would answer 19 seconds later when the Pirates coughed up the puck around their net and an eighth grader Madilyn Jamieson knocked it in to make it a 2-1 game. “We’ve had a tendency to give up a quick goal after we score,” said Meyer, “that’s something we have to work on is not let down after the other team’s scores.” The other team didn’t score again, but Crookston added two in the last two minutes, first on a power play, Addie Fee, a sophomore, was charging into the East Grand Forks zone and was given the puck by Taylor Field and Fee made a couple moves in the high slot, got in close and it appeared she fanned on a backhander but had enough of it to go through the five-hole of Green Wave goalie, Britlyn Rasmussen to make it 3-1. 30 seconds after that, Field would score on a two on one with Tull and Tull’s pass was just a tad behind Field, who reached behind, and it put her on her backhand which she was able to flip past Rasmussen to make it 4-1 at the end of the first period. ” Crookston outshot East Grand Forks 16-7 in the first period. “We did a good job of finishing the period up and dominated in the offensive zone,” said Meyer, “It was good to score those two goals to go into the locker room with a lot of momentum.”

SECOND PERIOD
Crookston started the second period off much the same as the first period when Swanson scored her second of the game and 11th of the year when she circled the East Grand Forks net, came out in front, and put a perfectly placed backhander to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead. “We like it when our defensemen get active in the offensive zone,” said Meyer, “they all do a good job of it and have the speed to recover, and also, their teammates know when to drop back to cover their position.”
Just under five minutes into the period, Crookston scored again on a beautiful play by freshman Emma LaPlante, who battled for the puck in the East Grand Forks corner with Parker Strand. LaPlante came away with the puck, went behind the East Grand Forks net, and found Strand in front by herself, an easy tip for the sophomore for her first goal of the season. “It was great to see all our lines score tonight and seeing Parker get her first goal as well,” said Meyer. Crookston did not score the rest of the period, but they outshot East Grand Forks again 14-3. One thing the Pirates did do is stifle the top line of East Grand Forks, Kara Ellis, Blake Schultz, and Maggey Plante, who came in with 26 of the Green Wave’s 38 goals and scored seven of their nine last night in an impressive 9-5 win at West Fargo United. “we did an excellent job of matching their lines, having our first line out with their first line,” said Meyer, “we even had our second and third line out against their top line, and they all played solid defense and didn’t give them any time and space. It was good to contain them and keep the shots off Kailee (Magsam) too.”

THIRD PERIOD
The third period had only one goal, and that came from the Pirate leading scorer coming into the game, Cassie Solheim, as she jumped on a Field shot and put a rebound up top over the Green Wave goalie just over 14 minutes into the game and made it a 7-1 final as running time ran out. Crookston outshot East Grand Forks again, this time 17-4 for a total of 47-14 in shots on goal. “We had a lot of unselfish play, moving the puck, communicating, which was something the girls had mentioned in the locker room that we needed to pick up on,” said Meyer, “this was the game to do it. I thought we did a great job spacing out, moving the puck fast and hard, and getting those opportunities.”

#7 ranked Crookston improves to 9-1-1 on the season and will host Detroit Lakes on Thursday at 3:00 PM at the Crookston Sports Center. Detroit Lakes has no JV team, so it’s varsity only. Detroit Lakes will also be another Section 8A game, and the Lakers are 2-9 on the season, picking up their second victory tonight, 3-2 over Morris-Benson. “With Detroit Lakes having a tough time so far, we plan to play four lines and three sets of defensemen throughout the game if we can,” said Meyer, “we want to pick up another win and head into a quick Christmas break.”
East Grand Forks is 4-6 on the season and will host Fargo North-Fargo South (N.D.) on Thursday.
JV – East Grand Forks won 5-2

Scoring	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
East Grand Forks	1	0	0	1
CROOKSTON	4	2	1	7

1st Period
0:35 – CROX – Kaylee Clauson (3) (Brekken Tull, Cassie Solheim)
4:47 – CROX – Reese Swanson (10) (Unassisted)
5:06 – EGF – Madilyn Jamieson (Unassisted)
15:00 – CROX – Addie Fee (4) (Taylor Field, Ashlyn Bailey) (PP)
15:30 – CROX – Taylor Field (7) (Brekken Tull)

2nd Period
0:59 – CROX – Reese Swanson (11) (Taylor Field, Jenna Seaver)
4:56 – CROX – Parker Strand (1) (Emma LaPlante)

3rd Period
14:09 – CROX – Cassie Solheim (5) (Taylor Field, Brekken Tull)