The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team was able to not only honor their Mayville-Portland based players with a “home” game but also a 3-1 win over the Jamestown Bluejays in a non-Section game played at Mayville’s Kim Braaten Memorial Arena.
Jamestown opened the scoring just 5:29 into the first period with Ella Roaldson scoring with assists from Kaycee Johnson and Lexi Leroux giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Crookston was able to answer before the end of the first period with Mayville’s Nora Peterson scoring on her home ice for the Pirates tying the score at 1-1. “She got a loose puck at about the blue line,” explained Crookston head coach Tim Moe. “She was pretty much by herself. She got a quick shot off and was able to get her rebound and get it past the goalie.” Moe explained that Crookston managed to overcome a slow start to the opening period, “I think we had a little bit of a hangover from what happened to us on Saturday. We were losing them in the defensive zone again, and because of that, we gave up a really nice goal to Ella Roaldson. Her dad, Jim, was a former math teacher in Crookston and is the current AD in Jamestown. She was able to put it right up in the upper corner.”
In the second period, Crookston outshot Jamestown 14-8 setting up what proved to be the game-winning goal. With 7:26 to play in the second period, Aleah Bienek scored off a rebound putting the Pirates in front 2-1. “That was shorthanded I believe,” noted Moe. “I’ll have to look at the tape because there should be an assist on that I think. (Bienek) was right out in front of the net to get the rebound. She put the rebound up over the top of the goalie. (Jamestown) is kind of in the same boat as we were when we played East Grand Forks,” noted Moe. “They’re a co-op between Valley City and Jamestown, and they had a couple of kids from both schools playing in the state volleyball tournament, so they had some kids who first practiced yesterday. This was their first game, so I think we wore them down a little bit in the second and third periods leading to more opportunities for us.”
Crookston added an insurance goal early in the final period to put the game away. Dillynn Wallace hit Kendall Bergquist with a pass that she deposited into the back of the net giving the hosts a 3-1 lead. “That was a huge one for us,” added Moe. “It was a terrible angle, but we’ve been telling the kids ‘just shoot the puck’ and she was on the right-hand side of the net and was just able to shoot the puck nice and low and sneak it inside the net.” Mayville’s Grace Koshney played well in net managing 27 saves including 9 in the third period helping Crookston hang on for a 3-1 win. “We had all of our Mayville and Hatton kids dressed, so just to be able to have all of them play tonight was a goal of ours. To have a little cushion towards the end of the game we were able to get everyone into the game and experience their home rink there. That was big for me personally. A win is always fun, and Jamestown has kind of had our number the past couple of years, so to be able to really accomplish everything we wanted to do was great. Mayville came out to support our girls really well as well too. To get a win by playing everybody and scoring some goals finally was just a great night for the Pirates.”
Crookston improves to 1-3-0. The Pirates return to the ice for the Prowler Invitational in Thief River Falls where Crookston takes on West Fargo at 6:00 P.M. on KROX. Jamestown falls to 0-1-0.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Jamestown | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Crookston-MP | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
1st Period
11:31 – Jamestown – Ella Roaldson (Kaycee Johnson, Lexi Leroux)
0:30 – Crookston – Nora Peterson (unassisted)
2nd Period
7:26 – Crookston – Aleah Bienek (unassisted) (SH)
3rd Period
14:28 – Crookston – Kendall Bergquist (Dillynn Wallace)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Jada Nelson – Jamestown | 6 | 13 | 5 | 24 |
| Grace Koshney Crookston | 10 | 8 | 9 | 27 |
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