BEMIDJI’S FRESHMAN BAILEY RUPP SCORES IN OVERTIME TO DEFEAT THE CROOKSTON PIRATES 2-1 IN GIRL’S HOCKEY

Bemidji freshman phenom Bailey Rupp was held in check for 53 minutes and 38 seconds tonight by the Crookston Pirates, but 2:38 into overtime, she was able to keep the puck in the Crookston zone and walked up the slot and buried a high shot over the right shoulder of Pirate goalie Kambelle Freije to give the Lumberjacks a 2-1 win in overtime at the Crookston Sports Center! It was Rupp’s 14th goal of the season. The freshman’s mother is the former Stephanie Boll, a Crookston High School graduate; her grandparents are Lucian and Karen Boll of Crookston!!

Nobody would score in the first period, with both teams having good opportunities. Bemidji’s Rupp rang one off the crossbar with about six and a half minutes to go in the period, and 40 seconds later, Rupp had a point-blank shot that Freije swallowed to keep it scoreless. “We knew that Rupp can shoot and has a lot of speed,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “we needed to contain that and work on keeping her outside, so when she had the opportunity to get that shot off, we got fortunate that it went bar up and bar down. Crookston would take over with good possessions late in the period. Addie Fee, Morgan Nelson, and Taylor Field all had close-in shots that Bemidji goalie Ava Myhre stopped. “Addie, Morgan, and Tay had great chances using speed and puck movement in their zone. Same things for Jocelyn Field, Brekken Tull, and Brynley Coleman, who were controlling and found some good chances along with Cassie Solheim, Parker Strand, and Kaylie Clauson line.” Both teams had a full power play and then bits of a second power play, but neither could score with the person advantage. Even with no scoring, the shot total was pretty good for both teams, with Crookston having a slight 9-7 advantage. “I think right off the bat, both teams showed that this game wasn’t going to be an easy battle,” said coach Meyer, “This was pretty much expected between these two teams.”

The second period wasn’t much different, with both sides taking away time and space from each other. Early in the period, Bemidji’s Tahliya Little had a slapper from when Freije made the save and gave up a rare rebound to her right side. One of the Bemidji wingers was there with a wide-open right side of the net, but miraculously, Freije managed to slide to her right and made a tremendous save to keep it 0-0. “Kam came up big for us,” said Meyer, “this one stood out the most, going from side to side and a big backdoor shot by Rupp that she got to. That save was huge! Crookston was on a power play late in the period. Although they didn’t score on the man advantage, the Pirate’s Cassie Solheim was given a pass from Reese Swanson. Solheim skated in the left circle with a clear shot but moved to the middle slot and sniped one past Myhre to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead, one second after Bemidji was at full strength and 3:37 left in the period. “Cassie’s goal was beauty,” said Meyer. “She was composed, patiently worked in an open space, and picked a corner and a beautiful shot. That lit a fire for that line. They started to dominate shift after shift. We started running in the second period, thinking more offense than defense and scrambling. I was happy going into the locker room leading 1-0. We just needed to keep the pressure on and wear them down.”

Bemidji would pick up the pace in the third period, first when Crookston took the only penalty just four minutes into the final stanza. Still, the Pirates skated that off and had a couple of opportunities that didn’t develop skating short-handed. Bemidji would tie it up just over nine minutes into the period as Megan Berg was in front of the Crookston net and slapped a rebound past Freije to tie it at 1-1 with almost eight minutes to go in the game. “It was a battle in the third,” said Meyer, “when they scored the tying goal, we knew it was going to overtime, and the game certainly could go either way.” Bemidji’s Rupp, who probably played 80% if not more of the game along with linemates, continued to pressure the Pirates and had some designed plays in the offensive zone that just missed connecting or the Pirate’s defense got in the passing lanes to tip them away and kept the Lumberjacks mainly to the outside. They went 51 minutes with a 1-1 score and were headed to overtime.

After a short two-minute break, a welcome rest for both teams, play continued in an eight-minute overtime. “We knew that we had to think defensively, so we made a choice to move Morgan back to defense and put Emma (LaPlante) to forward to create a chance in some way, hopefully,” said Meyer. It didn’t take long as Rupp, who had been denied all game, managed to grab a puck just the Crookston blue line that wasn’t cleared out and Rupp snapped it up and walked in, and she was about at the dots and wristed a well-placed shot up high and over Freije’s shoulder for the game-winner and her 14^th goal of the year to give Bemidji the 2-1 win. “We had some good chances in the offensive zone, but when we tried to clear the puck out of our end, we made the mistake of throwing it right to them, and they capitalized to get the win,” said Meyer, “we knew it was going to be a battle, so we will take away the positives from the game and work on the things that we can control collectively as a group and use the next two games this week to regroup and refocus on the basics. It was a fun game between two good teams. I’m excited to see Bemidji again this season at their place.”

Crookston falls to 6-3-1 on the season and will be at Detroit Lakes for a Section 8A game on Thursday night for a 7:00 PM game, which will be on KROX RADIO at 6:30 PM. The Pirates will then travel to Chisago Lakes on Friday for a 4:30 PM varsity-only game. Bemidji improves to 6-4 and will be at #5AA Benilde-St. Margaret’s on Friday night and at #1AA Minnetonka on Saturday afternoon!!
JV –  Bemidji  won  7-2