TWO GOALS IN 39 SECONDS OF THE THIRD PERIOD LEADS EAST GRAND FORKS TO A 4-3 WIN OVER PIRATES

East Grand Forks was hanging on after two periods in a 2-2 game, then Crookston scored two minutes into the third period to take their first lead at 3-2, but the Green Wave found a way to strike with two goals in a 39 second span to take a 4-3 lead and it shocked the Pirates who couldn’t score in the last 12 minutes o the game and East Grand Forks won the Section 8A game 4-2 in exciting fashion.

The first period was a strange one in that Crookston seemed to out of sorts with three bad line changes and they just seemed off kilter! East Grand Forks took advantage just about a minute and a half into the game as Aleah Oshie came into the Crookston zone on a breakaway and her wrist shot was stopped by Pirate goalie Jacey Larson, but the rebound popped up in the air and in the low slot in front of the net and the Green Wave’s Kendra Emery drilled it home for a 1-0 lead almost before the first hot dog was sold! From that point the first period was pretty even until East Grand Forks scored with just under four minutes to go when Maggey Plante, a sophomore third line wing, was at the Green Wave blue line and the Crookston goalie screened heavily, Plante’s wrister made it’s way through the traffic and past Larson who didn’t see it and East Grand Forks was now up 2-0. Crookston did have some chances in the first period, like Brekken Tull was standing in front of the East Grand Forks goal and an errant pass from the Green Wave ended up at Tull’s stick and she had time to pick her shot and the Green Wave goalie, Ashley Corbett stoned the shot to keep it at that time 1-0. “It just wasn’t our period in that first one,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “we were running around a bit and had a lack of communication.”

The second period turned into what could be considered one of the best periods of hockey that Crookston has played this season!! It didn’t matter if it was 5 on 5 or 4 on 5, Crookston was all over the place taking time and space from East Grand Forks who were reeling most of the period. Again, Crookston had chances in the first half of the period, but either just missing the net, failing to close the deal and solid goaltending by Corbett. Just about half way through the period, Crookston would strike and it was sophomore defenseman, Morgan Nelson was in her own end, quickly moved in Green Wave territory, about the high circle to the left of the goal and put a hard slap shot that rang off the post and in to the right side of the goalie and the Pirates cut the lead in half trailing 2-1 with half the game left. “Kudos to Morgan as she really put her heart out there,” said coach Meyer, “she was going end to end, she was tough at the blue line keeping it in the zone.” It looked like the second period might end that way, but Pirates leading scorer, sophomore defenseman Reese Swanson had just gotten done serving a penalty and is back on the ice with 49 seconds to go in the period. She motored from out of her own end, got the puck along the boards to Aleah Bienek and with 12 seconds to go, Bienek spotted a couple of teammates in front and she threaded a pass to Addie Fee who was wide open in front, but instead of picking a spot, she saw Swanson to her left and made a slow touch pass to her left and Swanson ended with toe, like Bienek was the tic, Fee was the tac and Swanson the toe in Tic, Tac, Toe!!! “Huge kudos to Addison (Addie Fee) for being so patient on that play. Everyone was so shocked that she held on to it, thinking she was going to shoot it, but Addie said she saw Reese coming into the zone, then she made a perfect nice and slow pass and Reese put it in the back of the net. I like the way that Addison and Reese work together as they always seem to know where each other are on the ice and it works out.” Crookston outshot East Grand Forks 14-1 in the period. “

The third period saw Crookston come out with the same drive and force they had in the second period and it paid off two minutes in when senior Captain defenseman, Rylee Solheim took a partner pass from Ashlyn Bailey and Solheim was looking for a Pirate to pass to in front, saw nobody and took a shot that appeared to go off a Green Wave player and past Corbett and Crookston had their first lead of the game 3-2! It lasted exactly two minutes when Kara Ellis, the Green Wave’s leading scoring came in on a two on one and found a spot past Larson to tied the game at 3-3. 39 seconds later Emery scored her second her second goal of the game on another rebound goal to stun the Crookston fans and team. About half way through the period, East Grand Forks took two penalties, the only ones in the period and Crookston had a 5 on 3 power play for 26 seconds without much happening but the rest of the second penalty Crookston was all over the Green Wave but either couldn’t penetrate the Green Wave to get to Corbett or the senior stopped what was thrown at her. Time slipped away at a very fast rate for Crookston and with just over a minute left, Crookston used a timeout, face off in the East Grand Forks end and pulled their goalie for the extra attacker but couldn’t get the equalizer and suffered the 4-2 loss to East Grand Forks. East Grand Forks had used their timeout earlier than Crookston’s as both teams were trying to get their best players on the ice with at least that minute rest. “Yeah, we rushing in those last couple minutes, using six people, two centers, all the wings as everyone wanted to get out there to equal it up,” said Meyer. 
Tonight was a good recovery for East Grand Forks as they lost last night at home to West Fargo 3-1. Crookston had beaten West Fargo 3-1 back in November.  The Pirates will have some time to think about this game as they don’t play until January 4, 2022 against Jamestown, N.D. at Mayville. Crookston is in a cooperative with Mayville-Portland and Hatton, N.D. and they want to honor the two, Parker Strand of Mayville and Brynley Coleman of Hatton, “It will be a packed house,” said Meyer, ” those fans really want to come out and support their two local kids and the Pirates too.” Until then, the Pirates will have some practices and, “It will come down to for our girl’s, who spend a lot of time together, they’ve gotten to know each other pretty well this year,” said coach Meyer, “right now we need a break. A break from each other, collect ourselves, come back and regroup as a team and get down to business. We’ll have a lot of tough competition after the break with East Grand Forks two more times, Thief River Falls, Roseau a couple times, Fergus Falls and we have to start worrying too much about who we are playing and spend more time playing like we did in the second period tonight.”
Crookston is now 6-4-1 on the season while East Grand Forks improves to 3-6.
JV – Crookston and East Grand Forks tied 2-2 and decided no overtime.

Also, you might notice no pictures of the Crookston/EGF game tonight!! It turns out is was operator error!!! Sorry, Merry Christmas!!!

1st Period
1:21 – EGF – Kendra Emery (Julia Nelson, Aleah Oshie)
13:17 – EGF – Maggey Plante (Jacelyn Brenden)

2nd Period
8:26 – CROX- Morgan Nelson  (3)  unassisted
16:48- CROX – Reese Swanson  (6) (Addie Fee, Aleah Bienek)

3rd Period
2:02 –  CROX – Rylee Solheim  (1)  (Ashlyn Bailey)
4:02 –  EGF – Kara Ellis (Sophia Lukach, Madison Stocker)
4:41 –  EGF – Kendra Emery  (Megan Berg)