The Warroad Warriors scored twice in the last three and a half minutes of the game to defeat the battling Crookston Pirates 4-2 for the Section 8A Girl’s Hockey championship at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls. It is the 10th straight Section 8A Championship for Warroad, who is also the defending Minnesota State Class A champion for the last three years. It’s the fourth straight year that Crookston has lost to the Warriors in the Section championship!!
FIRST PERIOD
Warroad, the number one seed in the Section Tournament came out fast to start the game, but the Pirate goaltender, Kambelle Freije was her usual self, steering shots aside and having good vision during the game to take a lot of Warroad shots with her glove. Warroad had several opportunities in the period, with eighth-grader Olivia Anthony hitting the goalpost to the left of Freije, keeping the score at zero. The Pirate defense did a good job of clearing out in front of the Pirate goal to give Freije clear vision on most of the shots. Warroad did kill off the only penalty about halfway through the period. With under two minutes to go in the period, the Warriors struck first when their leading scorer, Jaylie French was fed the puck by Taylor Reese to the circle to the left of the Crookston goal and although not getting all of it, the puck floated toward the Crookston goal and found its way in to make it 1-0 with 1:22 to go in the period. The period ended that way and Warroad outshot Crookston 11-5 in the first period. “It was disappointing to give up that late goal in the period,” said Crookston head coach Reed Olson, “we did a pretty good job defensively keeping them out goal area and let Kambelle do her job, but we need to get more offensive.”
SECOND PERIOD
Nobody would score during the 17 minutes of the second period, although there were a number of chances. Although Crookston would only manage five more shots on goal, they would have some tremendous chances. Jensen Stinar, a Pirate freshman who had two-point blank opportunities, one was a close in shot at the Warroad goal, occupied by Payton Rolli, who steered it aside and then Stinar would circle around the Warroad net, come back in front for another point-blank shot that Rolli made the play on. Rolli came into the game just giving up 1.09 goals a game and eight shutouts!! Crookston speedster defenseman, Adley Vigness, had two opportunities herself putting a couple of strong shots that were blocked by Rolli who did an excellent job of steering the puck away to the side boards leaving no rebounds for the Pirates. “We did have those chances, and their goalie played well,” said Coach Olson, “just like the first period we were harping on them to get more shots on goal.” Crookston did have a five on three power play for 1:29 in the period but could not get anything past Rolli. The Pirates also skating off two penalties in the period, but Warroad was looking to add another late one in the last seconds, Warroad’s French was in on a break away bearing in on Freije, who match her with a tremendous save to end the period and keep Crookston within the one goal at 1-0 after two periods. “It was a better period for us except for lack of shots on net,” said Olson, “we need that next goal.”
THIRD PERIOD
Crookston started off fast in the final period and got some earlier offensive zone time with Addison Fee, a senior captain who had four goals and three assists in the Section semi-final win over East Grand Forks on Saturday 9-2, Three of her goals were top shelf and in the first minute or so, Fee had the puck in the middle slot and she was going for another and it was too top shelf, going over the Warroad net. Play started winding down and Warroad took a penalty nearly halfway through the period and Crookston did nothing on the two-minute advantage and it was still 1-0. Crookston knew they needed the next goal, and it was their leading scorer that took it in her hands, Jocelyn Field got the puck in the Warroad zone, coming into the left of Rolli and from about five feet out, sniped a shot that beat the junior goalie on the short-side, her glove hand to tie it up at 1-1 with 6:31 left in regulation. “That was the goal we needed,” said Thompson, “it fired up the team, it fired up the crowd.” The tie lasted less than two minutes when Karlee Kalbrener was to the right of the Crookston goal and was trying to center the puck and it hit a Pirate stick and went in behind Freije to give Warroad the lead again 2-1. That lead lasted 29 seconds when Fee was in the slot area again with an open shot and went top shelf again, and this time found it’s mark to make it a 2-2 game with just over four minutes to go in regulation. “We thought we might have them now,” said Olson, “we were really fired up, playing very well and had them on their heels a little bit.” The second tie of the game lasted 50 seconds when Kalbrener grabbed a Pirate cough up and buried it to make it a 3-2 lead with 3:24 to go in the game. The Warriors iced it with 1:44 to go when Kalbrener’s shot from the slot was blocked, came right back to Reese in the slot and sent a whistler past Freije to make it a
4-2 and for the third year in a row, Warroad defeated Crookston for the Section 8A Championship.
Crookston’s season ends at 14-11-1, “It was a great game and a great season for these girl’s,” said first year head coach Olson, “I couldn’t be more proud of these girls and these seniors, who provided outstanding leadership to the team. We told the underclassmen that they must remember this game and how it feels right now, that will carry you to the next season.”
Crookston seniors are Kaylie Clauson, Addison Fee, Kambelle Freije, Parker Strand, student managers, Paige Abrahamson and Georgia Sanders.
Warroad will take their 24-3 record to the Minnesota State Tournament that starts next week in St. Paul. In all likelihood, Warroad should be the top-seeded team in the Tournament, being currently ranked the number-one team in the state.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Warroad | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
1st Period
15:38 – Warroad – Jaylie French (Taylor Reese)
2nd Period
No scoring
3rd Period
10:29 – CROX – Jocelyn Field (19) (Parker Strand)
12:17 – Warroad – Karlie Kalbrener (Reagan Haley)
12:46 – CROX – Addie Fee (19) (Kaylie Clauson, Jocelyn Field)
13:36 – Warroad – Karlie Kalbrener (Jaylie French)
15:16 – Warroad – Taylor Reese (Karlie Kalbrener)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Kambelle Freije – Crox | 10 | 11 | 14 | 35 |
| Payton Rolli – Warroad | 5 | 5 | 9 | 19 |
