Maybe it was because the officials arrived late, and the game started about a half-hour later than scheduled. Still, the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team didn’t have a shot on goal for the first nine minutes of the game. Still, the next 42 minutes, they averaged over a shot a minute, putting 51 shots on goal, six of them going in and three from Nora Peterson, a senior from Mayville, North Dakota, to lead the Pirates to a 6-0 win over International Falls at the Crookston Sports Center.
First Period
As stated, the Pirates didn’t have a shot on goal for the first 9:10 of the game, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t carry play during that time. “We were working hard, but not getting any shots on goal,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe, “some of the girl’s were saying in the box why weren’t they putting our shots on goal on the scoreboard? I told them because we weren’t getting any shots on goal, we were missing the net, having pucks blocked.” Crookston had a couple of open net opportunities with the Broncos goalie, Naomi Carradice, down but missed by a lot or a little several times! The best chances of the period came from International Falls captain Emma Erickson, who twice had breakaways only to be stoned by Pirate goalie Kailee Magsam. “She’s a big girl with surprising speed,” said Moe, “plus she really could stick handle and add those things up, and she’s a very good player, but Kailee did a great job and made some terrific saves on some difficult shots.” Crookston did have 11 shots in the last eight minutes of the period but was unable to dent Carradice, and you had a 0-0 score after the first 17 minutes.
Second Period
It didn’t take long for the Pirates to strike in the second period when Peterson showed why she led the team in scoring last year, taking the puck on the far boards, circled to the center of the ice, walked down the middle and in the slot rifled a shot top shelf to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. A few minutes later, Pirate defenseman Rylee Solheim did about the same moves that Peterson did, walking down the middle with no interference and snapped a shot up high past Carradice for a 2-0 Crookston lead. “We talked about that in-between periods, that we were getting some good opportunities but not on net. Their goalie played very well but had a tendency to go down, so we told them to shoot high on her, and that is exactly what Nora and Rylee did.” Peterson would get her second of the period on a rebound from Cassie Solheim’s shot and was set up by Mackenzie Epema’s efforts to keep the puck in the zone. Crookston’s lead was 3-0, and International Falls came close to adding one, and you guessed right if it involved Erickson as she got into the Crookston zone and snapped a long shot that rang off the pipe to the left side of Magsam. Crookston outshot International Falls in the period 23-1!!
Third period
In the first two periods, Crookston had trouble getting people in front of the Bronco’s net, trying to screen their goalie or look for close in rebounds. That changed earlier in the third period when Crookston’s freshman defenseman, Reese Swanson, keeping the puck in the International Falls zone, let a wrist shot go that Aleah Bienek got a stick on and tipped it past the Broncos goalie for her first of the season and gave Crookston a 4-0 lead just under two minutes into the final period. Crookston would score again, and it was also because of traffic in front as Carradice made a couple saves and was down on the ice, and it turned into a scrum in front, and Grace Fischer poked it past for her first of the season and gave the home team a 5-0 lead. “We emphasized that we needed to create some people in front to try and disrupt their goalie,” said Moe, “we did a much better job of that in this period.”
Peterson would cap off the scoring with 1:21 left in the game when she received a nice pass from Cassie Solheim in front, and Peterson would one time a shot that Carradice had no time to react to give Crookston a 6-0 lead. “It was a good win for us,” said Moe, “we played 19 skaters and all 20 players tonight, rolling out four lines and six defensemen. The object is to get everyone ice time for sure and enable our players to give a hard 45-second shift and get off and let another fresh body get out there. It worked well, and we certainly wore them down as the game went along.” It was the most shots on goal this season for the Pirates by a 51-11 margin. Only one penalty called in the entire game, and the Pirates were 0-1 on the power play.
Crookston improves to 1-2 on the season and will travel to Warroad to play the #3 ranked team in Minnesota Class A. The Warriors have yet to play this season and open up Thursday when they host Thief River Falls. “They are where we are striving for,” said Moe, “and we want to go up there and keep improving every game.” The game on Friday will be on KROX RADIO.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| International Falls | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
15:41 – Crox – Nora Peterson (1) unassisted
10:09 – Crox – Rylee Solheim (1) (Reese Swanson)
2:50 – Crox – Nora Peterson (2) (Cassie Solheim, Brekken Tull)
3rd Period
15:20 – Crox – Aleah Bienek (1) (Reese Swanson, Dillynn Wallace)
8:52 – Crox – Grace Fischer (1) (Brynley Coleman)
1:21 – Crox – Nora Peterson (3) (Cassie Solheim, MacKenzie Epema)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Naomi Carradice – IF | 11 | 20 | 14 | 45 |
| Kailee Magsam – Crox | 4 | 1 | 6 | 11 |
