FARGO NORTH-SOUTH WINS 10TH IN A ROW IN 5-2 WIN OVER PIRATES

The Fargo North-South Spruins scored in the last minute of the second period and added another in the first minute of the third period to defeat the Crookston Pirates 5-2 in a Girl’s Hockey game played at Mayville, N.D.

First Period
The leading goal scorer in North Dakota Girl’s Hockey, the Spruins Rylee Barth, would get Fargo-North South off to a fast start with a goal just 27 seconds into the game, almost before the crowd was seated!! “On the goal, the puck went up on top of the glass,” said Crookston assistant coach Emily Meyer. “It stuck up there, and we had a good angle that it hit the net and should have brought a whistle, but our girl’s stopped playing, and their girl was able to pick up the puck as it came down and skated in for the goal. It proves that you keep playing to the whistle.”
The Spruins Sara Stich made it 2-0 with about five minutes left in the first period, which was a pretty good up and down period with the Pirates having some scoring opportunities. One came on a breakaway for Addie Fee, who tried to go the glove side and was stopped.  The Pirates were unable to capitalize on the rest of the opportunities, and Fargo North-South led 2-0 after the first period. “Addie had a great chance but was stopped and certainly could have changed the flow of the game,” said Meyer, “their second goal came on a lucky bounce over our defenseman’s stick and to their player who scored. We told the girls that there was a lot of game to play, keep your heads up and play our game.”

Second Period
Fargo North-South would make it 3-0 when Evelyn Olson popped one in on a nifty pass from Molly Hanson with 9:29 elapsed in the period. The Pirates would finally solve the Spruins goalie Olivia Gowin (who is now 8-0 on the season and goals-against average 1.67).  Crookston eighth-grader Fee had the puck at her own blue line, spotted teammate Reese Swanson near center ice, hit her with a pass that sent Swanson in alone on Gowin.  Swanson, a freshman, scored her first goal as a Pirate beating the goalie with a wrister past the glove and top-shelf. The goal cut the gap to 3-1 with just under six minutes left in the period. “That was a nice goal by those two,” said coach Meyer, “that gave us some energy on the bench and ice as we started believing that we can do it, and we were playing with a purpose.” One of the cardinal rules of hockey is never give up a goal in the last minute or first minute of a period, and they broke that rule twice. With just 24 seconds left in the period, Fargo North-South’s Anna Nelson scored unassisted. Just seconds before, the Pirates had a rush that they came close to scoring, but the Bruins brought it back quickly and scored, taking a 4-1 lead into the locker room. “It was the second goal we gave up as they walked through two or three girls in the game,” said Meyer, “we told them before that Fargo North-South was going to be physical, and we said you have to try and out muscle them. We didn’t on two of those goals.”

Third Period
Barth of the Spruins, who had 20 goals coming into the game, would add her second goal of the game just 43 seconds into the period as she weaved her way through the Pirates defense and let a quick shot go that beat the Pirate goalie and it was 5-1. Crookston had some good chances the rest of the period, and finally, with six minutes left in the game, it was another eighth-grader, Parker Strand, who banged a rebound in off a Mackenzie Epema shot from the point. Strand is an eighth-grader from Mayville!
Both goalies ended up with 20 saves in the game, and it was a much better performance for the Pirates than Friday night in a loss at Warroad. Besides Strand and Brynly Coleman, Nora Peterson is from Mayville High School. “I thought we outplayed them in both the second and third periods,” said Meyer, “a lot of our girls are disappointed in only one win in our first five games. They know it starts in practice, and we have to keep pushing each other to get better.”

Crookston is 1-4 on the season and will host West Fargo United on Thursday at the Crookston Sports Center. Fargo North-South improves to 10-1 on the year and will host Grand Forks Knightriders tomorrow night.

1st Period
0:27 – Fargo N-S –  Rylee Bartz unassisted
12:49 – Fargo N-S – Sara Stich (Elise Terstriep)

2nd Period
9:29 – Fargo N-S – Evelyn Olson (Molly Hanson)
12:11 – Crox – Reese Swanson (1) (Addie Fee)
16:36 – Fargo N-S – Anna Nelson unassisted

3rd Period
0:43 – Fargo N-S – Rylee Barth (Isabelle Puhl, Madelyn Rohrich)
11:59 – Crox –  Parker Strand (1) (Brynley Coleman, Kenzie Epema)