The Crookston Pirates Girls Hockey team was plagued by penalties throughout the game and made a late comeback to get within one, but Champlin Park/Coon Rapids held on to a 2-1 victory at the Champlin Ice Forum in Champlin, Minnesota on Saturday afternoon.
FIRST PERIOD –
Champlin Park-Coon Rapids Rebels came out blazing in their home arena and had the Pirates on their heels for much of the first period. “We were fortunate to keep them off the scoreboard,” said Crookston head coach Reed Olson, “Kambelle (Freije) was tremendous as she has been all season long, and why she is one of the better goalies in the state.” Crookston ended up with four penalties in the period, giving the Rebels one full power play in which they had four shots on goal and two Grade A chances that were stopped by Freije. The Rebels had a four-on-three power play for over a minute, and Crookston limited them to only two shots during this time, with Freije again having an opposing team trying to figure out a way to beat her. “We had problems with penalties beginning the year,” said Olson, “then we did a good job of limiting them, but it looks like we are back to taking them and I don’t know why.”
SECOND PERIOD –
Crookston took three more penalties in the second period, and Champlin Park-Coon Rapids took advantage several ways on the special teams. First, they scored an early power-play goal by defenseman Kylie Aswegan, who snuck a rebound in, and with just under three minutes to go in the period, the Rebels were leading 1-0. Three and a half minutes later, The Rebels scored a short-handed goal with third-line center Caitlin Easton converting a pass that trickled into the Crookston net to make it 2-0 for Champlin Park-Coon Rapids. “Penalties again were among the problems in the second period,” said Olson, “they took advantage of our mistakes and two quick goals to put us in a hole and the way they were skating, making it hard for us to come back. The Pirates were outshot in the period 15-3 and 25-8 through two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
Guess what? The Pirates took the first two penalties of the third period for a total of nine for the game. Crookston, who had a lot of practice during the game killing off penalties, was able to kill off the first one and on the second one, the Rebels took a penalty themselves about halfway through and ended up with both teams having about a minute power-play, but neither team would score. Crookston would get a power play opportunity with four minutes to go in the game but didn’t score but had some good chances without putting many shots on the goal. With continued good play in the Champlin Park-Coon Rapids zone, Crookston would score with 1:01 to go in the game. The Pirate’s leading scorer, Jocelyn Field, found a rebound in front of the Rebel’s goal and snapped off a nice quick shot that went top shelf to cut the Rebel’s lead in half at 2-1. “It was a nice goal by number two (Field),” said Coach Olson. Champlin Park-Coon Rapids won the following face-off, controlled the puck in the Crookston end, and ran out the time in the game to pull off the 2-1 win. “We played a couple of very good hockey teams this weekend,” said Olson, “our girls know what it will take to compete at a higher level. It’ll be nice to get back home on Tuesday and have a good practice on Monday.”
Crookston falls to 11-8-1 and returns home on Tuesday, hosting the Bemidji Lumberjacks, currently ranked #17 in the latest Let’s Play Hockey Magazine AA poll. It will be another three-game week for the busy, local girls who will also be at Roseau for a rematch on Friday night and then up early for an afternoon trip for a Section 8A rematch at Detroit Lakes.
Champlin Park-Coon Rapids raises their record to 13-7-1 on the season and will be at Rogers on Tuesday night.
JV – Champlin Park-Coon Rapids won 6-2
Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
Crookston | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Champlin Park-CR | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
2:47 – CP/CR – Kylie Aswegon (Tessa Boden, Sydney Burnevik) (PP)
6:23 – CP/CR – Caitlin Easton (June Semling) (SH)
3rd Period
15:49 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (14) (Kaylie Clauson, Hadley Verwest)
Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
Kambelle Freije-Crox | 10 | 13 | 10 | 33 |
Grace Lund-CP/CR | 5 | 3 | 3 | 11 |


