CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY WINS 13TH OF THE SEASON IN A SHUTOUT OVER DETROIT LAKES

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team continued their hot streak with eight girls scoring at least a goal in a 10-0 win over Detroit Lakes tonight at the Crookston Sports Center in a Section 8A game. It was the seventh win in the Pirates’ last eight games and two wins in a week of Detroit Lakes by a total of 25 to 0 scores.

After winning big a week ago at Detroit Lakes, the Pirates knew they would be heavy favorites again tonight if they played their game. It started just 48 seconds into the game when Morgan Nelson walked out from the Lakers corner to the left of Detroit Lakes goalie Emma Wahl, and Nelson had her moving from left to right and stuck a shot to a wide-open left side to make it 1-0 early. That line is fun to watch,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “with their passing and chemistry, and they’ll come off a shift and ask where they can position themselves to get a pass or goal, and they are always communicating.”  Another defenseman at the time, Reese Swanson, scored her team-leading 14th goal on a rebound off Aleah Bienek’s shot, and it was 2-0 less than seven minutes into the game. Three and a half minutes later, another Pirate defenseman Cassie Solheim scored on a nice give and go with Swanson as they were in Detroit Lakes end in the high slot with Solheim almost handing off a pass to Swanson, who one-touched it back to Solheim, who scored and it was 3-0. The Pirates weren’t done when they scored with a minute to go as Rylee Solheim carried the puck into the Lakers zone, went behind their net, and centered to Bienek in front, who buried it for her second goal of the game and fourth of the last two games and a 4-0 lead after a period. “It’s tough for Reese, Aleah, and Cassie not to score,” said Meyer, “their shots have been tough for the goalies to stop. I mean, they have low, hard shots that are tough to stop.”

What did the coach say to her team before they went out to the second period? “Nothing! Other than telling Reese and Morgan they were moving back to defense,” said Meyer. Crookston started changing around in the second period, moving Nelson and Swanson back to defense, bringing up eighth-grader Ava Martin and freshman Kaylie Clauson to play forwards, and playing four lines throughout the game. Bienek would score her second of the game on a pass from Addie Fee just short of nine minutes into the period, less than a minute later, Fee would score her 13th goal of the year when Martin passed to her behind the Lakers net. Fee would be on the goal line about 10 feet to the right of the Lakers goal, and her hard shot hit the goaltender and went in, and Crookston was leading 6-0.  The Crookston goaltender, senior Jaycee Larson, who was going for her third shutout of the season, had six saves in the period, which she turned aside with ease. “It gets a little boring after a while,” said Larson, “it’s fun watching this team compete, and all of us are contributing to the season we’re having.” Larson saw mostly JV and a backup role last year with the Pirates. With her senior year coming up, she worked very hard during the off-season, playing with the Pirate team in the summer tournaments and competing very well, which really gave her a lot of activity this season. “Jaycee worked hard during the summertime and deserves the time she gets on the varsity,” said Meyer.  With three and a half minutes left in the period, the Pirates Swanson scored her second of the game, with Nelson and Brekken Tull getting the helpers. The Pirates spent a lot of time trying to get the puck to players that haven’t scored many goals or points this season, and with 28 seconds to go, Parker Strand and Jocelyn Brekken set up Coral Brekken on a rebound, and the sophomore scored her first goal of the season, and the first varsity goal of her career and Crookston led 8-0 after two periods. “Coral really deserved it,” said Meyer, “that kid works so hard and never complains what I ask her to do. She is a team player, she’s the one that cheers loudest on the bench even when she’s not playing, she just wants the team to be successful.”

Detroit Lakes coach Scott Piepkorn said before the game, “Crookston keeps coming at you with excellent speed, and it doesn’t matter which line, it doesn’t matter they keep coming.” With the sizeable lead in the third period, the Pirates played the way they had the whole game, maybe some changes in personnel with 19 players playing (all except tonight’s backup goaltender, Kailee Magsam), and Crookston was playing very unselfishly in the second and third periods, and they scored twice. Any instructions to the team going out for the third-period coach? “Nope,” said Meyer again, “just keep going out there, work hard and keep having fun.” Freshman Kaylie Clauson snapped a brilliant top-shelf goal, and then Jenna Seaver scored her third of the season from Grace Fischer. “The third and fourth lines played a lot of hockey tonight, and they deserve it, particularly the Jenna, Grace, and Sam (Sanders) line who work so hard, and it’s fun to see them get on the score sheet too.” The last goal made it 15 players for Crookston had at least one point in the game.” You saw a lot of unselfishness out there tonight,” said Meyer, “it’s good to see how the team has transformed into a sisterhood and winning as a team, which is a lot of fun to watch. That is what makes it so exciting for a lot of those girls that don’t see the ice much in close games and let them contribute, and that is the goal here.”

Crookston is now 13-6-1 on the year and will host Roseau on Thursday. It’s Senior Night for the Pirates for the game against the Rams that starts at 6:00 PM as Roseau doesn’t have a JV team. The Rams beat the Pirates 6-2 up in Roseau on January 8. “Roseau came out flying in the game up there and caught us off guard,” said Meyer. “This time, we are at home, it’s Senior Night, and we hope some of that emotion will give us a boost against a very good Roseau team. Hopefully, it will be a fun game.” Detroit Lakes drops to 4-18-0.

1st Period
0:48 – Crox – Morgan Nelson (11) (Brynley Colman)
6:51 – Crox – Reese Swanson (14) (Aleah Bienek)
10:11 – Crox – Cassie Solheim (6) (Reese Swanson)
15:58 – Crox – Aleah Bienek (10) (Rylee Solheim)

2nd Period
8:40 – Crox – Aleah Bienek (11) (Addie Fee)
9:31 – Crox – Addie Fee (13) (Ava Martin, Reese Swanson)
13:34 – Crox – Reese Swanson (15) (Morgan Nelson, Brekken Tull)
11:32 – Crox – Coral Brekken (1) (Jocelyn Brekken, Parker Strand)

3rd Period
9:45 – Crox – Kaylie Clauson (3) (Brynley Coleman, Reese Swanson)
13:16 – Crox – Jenna Seaver (3) (Grace Fischer)