CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY SHUTOUT IN LOSS TO EAST GRAND FORKS

They say you create your own puck luck in hockey! What do ‘they’ say when you outplay the other team, dominate at times, and still couldn’t score a goal?
Others say you don’t have any luck!! That is what the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team could say after outshooting the Green Wave 19-15 but suffered a 2-0 loss to East Grand Forks in a Section 8A game in Crookston.  “We probably deserved a better fate,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe, “but on the flip side, East Grand Forks has been there before with kids that are pretty big and fast. I think that was the biggest issue. We are just not strong enough yet, can’t get the puck through traffic or to the net, plus we’ve faced some good goaltenders these first two games.”

First Period
Crookston came out with all engines working, carrying the play to East Grand Forks, who the Pirates gave very little space and time to handle the puck. Even with this, it didn’t seem to create a lot of good scoring opportunities for Crookston, but not from a lack of trying. Actually, Crookston thought they had scored with just over four minutes left in the period when the Pirate defenseman, Morgan Nelson lofted a wrist shot from the point that did beat the Green Wave goalie Ashley Corbett, but it was waved off by one of the officials as saying Crookston deflected the puck in with a high stick and it was no goal! “The official said after the game if I got that wrong, I apologize, I saw a stick up there, I heard something, “said Moe. “My response was that you call what you see, and we are more than OK with that, but just so you know, in the future, I’ve never seen Morgan put a shot over the cross-bar in my life. I thought we responded to the call OK, we kept the pressure on East Grand Forks and just couldn’t get the puck past their goaltender.” Crookston ended up outshooting East Grand Forks 8-2 in the period, and one of the two saves by Pirate goalie Kailee Magsam was a slow floater from about 125 feet!

Second Period
Whether it was their first game of the season or not, East Grand Forks regrouped between periods and put a much better effort than the first period, and it paid off with the ‘first’ goal of the game when junior defenseman C. J. Mack was able to grab a Pirate clearing pass in the high slot and put a quick wrister past Pirate goalie Magsam. “Kailee might have been in the back of the net too much,” aid More, ” but she will learn from that. I had a perfect angle on the shot, and there was a little too much net showing. When you give up that much to shoot at to a player that caliber, it’s going to go in the net.” The play was pretty even the rest of the period, although Crookston had a golden chance when their returning leading scorer, Nora Peterson, received a neat crisp on the ice pass from Cassie Solheim, who was behind and to the side of the Green Wave net to Peterson, who would skate through the top of the crease and either got bumped by the Green Wave goalie, who came out and when she did she was out of position and Peterson had A LOT of open net, but was unable to regain her balance and was lunging and unable to get a shot off, which described some of the Pirates night. “Cassie brought a defender toward her, and I think the puck wasn’t quite on her stick right away, and Nora kind of tapped it and it kept going forward a little too far away which she couldn’t catch up to it,” said coach Moe.

Third Period
Neither team was able to muster many shots on goal in the third period as both appeared to be sluggish at times. Whether it was two games in two night for Crookston or the first game for East Grand Forks, it’s possible the masks that the teams are ordered to play with has something to do with that scenario as well.
Crookston continued to press the Green Wave in both zones, defensively holding East Grand Forks to four shots with a couple of nifty saves by Magsam. “Kailee has really played well in these first two games,” said Moe, “I was talking to our volunteer coach Nick Biermaier after the game who works with Kailee and says she is really coming along and after only playing hockey for three years when the freshmen get older, she will be one of the top goalies like we’ve seen these last two nights.” East Grand Forks would get the back-breaking goal with five minutes to go as the Green Waves top line was finally able to connect on three passes in the offensive zone, and on the third pass, East Grand Forks got some of that ‘puck luck’ as it bounced off a Pirate stick directly to Kara Ellis who snapped off a shot that hit the back of the net to give the Green Wave a 2-0 lead. About two and a half minutes later, Crookston received a power play and didn’t get a shot on goal in the two-minute extra person!! Crookston pulled their goalie with over a minute to go but was unable to get anything by Corbett, who recorded 19 saves and the shutout in her first varsity start for East Grand Forks. Crookston drops to 0-2 on the season with the loss, “We are still trying to figure things out,” said Crookston head coach Moe, “we are still in the process of learning how to win, how to play the game at a high level. We are going to keep plugging away and see if we can’t get there by the end of the year.”  Crookston will host International Falls in a varsity only game on Tuesday with a 6:00 PM start and then make the trip up to Warroad on Friday to play the talented Warriors.  East Grand Forks, 1-0, will also have two games next week, hosting Thief River Falls on Tuesday and also at home on Thursday with Fargo North-South.
JV –  Crookston won 4-2

The video replay of the game is available below, varsity starts at 2:52:25 – 

1st Period
No Scoring

2nd Period
4:18 – EGF – C.J. Mack –  unassisted

3rd Period
11:56 – EGF – Kara Ellis (Kendra Emery, Aleah Oshie)