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IT WAS A BATTLE OF THE GOALTENDERS AND NEITHER WON AS CROOKSTON & BEMIDJI PLAY A 1-1 OVERTIME TIE

January 17, 2023

When Crookston and Bemidji played last year in Girl’s Hockey, they played to a 1-1 overtime tie in Crookston while the Pirates won 2-0 in Bemidji. With this in mind, why would it be any different this season? Last season, Bemidji goalie, Payton Weidemann had 39 saves in the 1-1 overtime tie and 40 saves in the 2-0 loss that included an open net goal while at the same time, Crookston sophomore, Kambelle Freije was playing boy’s hockey in Grand Forks, N.D. Tonight, Bemidji was probably wishing the Pirate goalie was STILL playing boy’s hockey in Grand Forks as Freije stopped 41 shots, including 13 in the third period and 8 in overtime, which included a Bemidji power play as the two teams played a 1-1 overtime tie tonight at the Bemidji Community Center.

Bemidji’s Elizabeth Oster scored the only goal of the first period and game for Bemidji 11 minutes into the game to give the Lumberjacks the 1-0 lead that they took into the first period locker room. “Their goal came as their girl was in the slot and had tons of time to pick a corner and beat Kambelle,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “Bemidji really controlled in the first period. They had speed, moved the puck well which caught us off guard a little bit. All in all, not a bad period for us, just needed to use our speed more, have confidence with the puck and shoot the puck more to test Weidemann since we only put seven shots on her in the first.”

The Pirates leading goal scorer, defenseman Reese Swanson scored the Pirates only goal of the game nine minutes into the second period to tie it at 1-1. It was Swanson’s 17th goal of the season. “Brekken (Tull) did a nice job anticipating a breakout pass from Bemidji, put it low to Cassie (Solheim) who then dished it in the high slot to Reese who ripped a shot bar down to get us the board,” said Meyer, “Reese had an earlier penalty and as we killed it off perfectly, Morgan Nelson hit Reese with a pass coming out of the box, made a great spin move coming into the zone, but couldn’t connect with Taylor (Field), but it was good to see Reese see Taylor coming into the zone with speed. We had other great chances, but couldn’t find the back of the net. We kept getting better as the game went on. We made adjustments to Bemidj’s speed and really kept the pressure on them for the rest of the period.”

The third period was certainly a wild one with great offensive efforts by both teams as they were unable to solve either goalie. Crookston outshot Bemidji 17-13 even with Crookston skating off a penalty in the last minutes of regulation. “We had a lot of great opportunities to score,” said Meyer, “Weidemann just stopped everything we threw at her. Kambelle came up huge for us in the third period, stopping hard shots from the slot, controlling her rebounds and finding the puck through all the commotion in front of the net. We had one shot from Ashlynn Bailey that went bar down and from my position on the bench, looked like it was a for sure goal, but it popped out so fast. I know that on that one, she wished it went the other way and give us the win, but the girls had confidence they could get it back in overtime.”

Then in overtime, Crookston took a penalty with a minute and a half left of the eight minute OT and were outshot 8-3 but Freije continued to be en fuego (on fire) and the two teams played to the 1-1 overtime tie. “It was hard fought in the overtime,” said Meyer, “we had an interference call that was questionable to me, but I knew our penalty killers can score shorthanded, which wouldn’t make it easy on Bemidji. Bemidji called a time out with 30 seconds left and I though they might pull their goalie, but never did and it ended up 1-1. It was a hard fought battle the whole game. A lot of physical play, but the Pirates really dug deep and battled the whole game. An evenly matched exciting game. Can’t wait to see them next week.”

One thing with a quirk in scheduling, the two teams won’t have to wait long to see possible scoring chances in their dreams, as they play in exactly one week, next Tuesday in Crookston!! Crookston is 13-4-2 on the year and ranked #10 in Minnesota Class A and before their rematch with Bemidji next week, the Pirates will host Gentry Academy of Vadnais Heights (outskirts of St. Paul) on Friday night at the Crookston Sports Center. Gentry Academy is 15-2 on the season after having a 10 game winning streak snapped tonight in a 3-2 loss to Proctor-Hermantown on the road. The Stars are ranked #2 in Minnesota Class AA polls behind Minnetonka. Proctor-Hermantown, who the Pirates lost 4-1 over Christmas in the Warroad Classic, is ranked #3 in Minnesota Class A polls where Warroad is #1 and Holy Angels Academy is #2. Bemidji is 11-5-3 and will host Grand Rapids on Thursday and Alexandria on Saturday before the rematch with Crookston.
JV – Bemidji won 1-0 in overtime