CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY CRUISES TO A 7-1 WIN OVER THIEF RIVER FALLS

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team had six girls score goals and were led by Senior Captain Aleah Bienek with two goals to lead the Pirates to a 7-1 win over Thief River Falls in a Section 8A game in Crookston! The win over the Prowlers was the first time the Pirates have beaten Thief River Falls in 10 years plus!! The last victory over a Prowler team was on January 4, 2011 when Crookston won 3-1, and one of the players on that team for Crookston? Their new head coach Emily Meyer was a senior that year and now she is a first-year head coach for Crookston in her first game and picks up the big win. “We came out fine in every period and great to see we stuck with it and controlled play in each period and we capitalized on being in their end so much. Our depth and conditioning was a big factor in the win tonight.”

Crookston was goal starved last year with an 8-10-1 record averaging just over two goals a game (45 goals) plus they lost three of their top five scorers from that team to graduation. A year of added experience and some new varsity players and the Pirates looked strong right from the start, dominating the offensive end, creating chances but unable to put anything in until there were four and a half minutes to go in the first period. Bienek and linemate Reese Swanson put pressure from behind and the side of the Prowler net and their goalie, Isabella Berzinski was down and Swanson tried to stuff it, but it was knocked away to Bienek who jammed it in for the first goal of the game and the season, “yeah Reese and I were both to the side of their net and Reese tried to get it by their goalie and didn’t and I was finally able to do it and it was fun to get on the board,” said Bienek. “We really have a very good balanced team and it’s fun to see all the work we’ve put in paid off for the first game as I thought we were in shape and wore them down as the game went along.” The first period ended with Crookston leading 1-0 and outshooting the Prowlers 9-1 in the initial period of the season.

Things picked up for Crookston in the second period right away just a minute and a half into the game with freshman Addie Fee moving into the Prowlers zone was near the circle to the left of the Prowler goal and made a move around the defensemen and open in the slot, but passed it to her left to an open Samantha Sanders who tried to one time it, but ended up two-timing it in for the pretty goal and the Pirates were up 2-0. Thief River Falls came right back a minute later when sophomore defenseman, Quinnlyn Kenfield blew into the Crookston end and put a shot on that was saved by Pirate goalie Kailee Magsam but the rebound got back to Kenfield who made it on the second try to cut Crookston’s lead to 2-1. Crookston would add a couple more goals to open up the game a bit and both were created by senior defenseman Rylee Solheim. The first one was Solheim keeping the puck in the Thief River Falls zone, just inside the blue line and her shot was on goal and a very juicy rebound came out to junior Grace Fischer to pop it in and the Pirates were up 3-1. With just over two minutes left in the period, Rylee Solheim was in the circle to the left of the Prowler goal and made a crisp pass across to Brekken Tull and her one-timer made it a 4-1 Crookston lead after two periods. “It was nice to get some space between them,” said coach Meyer, “we really picked it up in the second dominating the whole period, and getting three goals was the result of some hard play, being selfish with some great passes that resulted in nice goals.”

Crookston eighth-grader, Ashlyn Bailey playing in her first high school hockey game went near coast to coast early in the third period and breezed into the Thief River Falls end and no Prowler tried, or could, get in her way and the speedster from about 14 feet out, put a wrister into a wide-open top shelf to score her first high school goal and made it a 5-1 game. A minute later Bienek netted her second of the game, “Reese (Swanson) came in quickly and put a quick shot on their goalie and I happened to be in the right spot and slapped it right back in before their goalie could react,” said Bienek. Crookston capped off their scoring with something they were unable to do very much last year at all and that was score a power-play goal. Fee carried the puck into the Thief River Falls end, made a couple of moves on the backhand and moved to a forehand in front and had her shot stopped but the rebound was right out to Swanson who buried it to finish the scoring, and Crookston claiming an opening night and home opener as well 7-1.
“We got to play four lines in the third period,” said Meyer, “we used the third and fourth lines a lot and gave them some good experience. We played well offensively, defensively, and in goal. I like how we spread out the scoring, kept the pressure on the entire game, and was a lot of fun. I told the girls during our practices that they’d hate me now when we did a lot of conditioning and they’d love me later and I think it showed tonight. It is a great way to start the season!”

Crookston will be at home again on Monday night when they host Wahpeton-Breckenridge with a varsity-only game at 6:00 PM. “It was a late addition to our schedule,” said Meyer, “we were one game short and they had an opening and I’ve never seen them play, so we don’t know much about them.”  Thief River Falls next game will be on Tuesday night when they play Detroit Lakes and they will play that game at the Cardin-Hunt Arena in Red Lake Falls, where a number of Thief River Falls players are from.

JV –  Crookston won 4-0 (goals from Logan Brekken, Kaylie Clauson, Jo Jo Wallace, and Miryah Epema. Julia Buhler has nine saves to get the shutout.

1st Period
CROX – 12:39 – Aleah Bienek (Reese Swanson, Brekken Tull)

2nd Period
CROX – 1:35 –  Samantha Sanders (Addie Fee)
TRF – 2:43  – Quinnlyn Kenfield   unassisted
CROX – 7:21  – Grace Fischer (Rylee Solheim)
CROX – 14:33  – Brekken Tull (Rylee Solheim)

3rd Period
CROX – 14:32  – Ashlyn Bailey  unassisted
CROX – 13:21  –  Aleah Bienek  (2)  (Reese Swanson, Rylee Solheim)
CROX –  5:53 –  Reese Swanson (Addie Fee)    (PP)