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CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY POWERS TO A 4-1 SECTION 8A WIN OVER TRF

January 9, 2023

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey power play came alive tonight, scoring three with the man advantage to defeat the visiting Thief River Falls Prowlers 4-1 in a Section 8A game at the Crookston Sports Center.
Pirate junior Brekken Tull scored twice, and Crookston overcame outstanding goaltending by the Prowlers Bella Hamre who had 44 saves.

FIRST PERIOD
The game started a little slowly for both teams, but then picked up with Crookston having a huge chance after Hamre made a save and then went down to her right and leaving the left side wide open for about 5 to 10 seconds with Crookston trying to find the loose puck, one backhander hit a defensemen’s shin, another went wide without any going into the net to keep it 0-0. “We came off a little flat,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “It was kind of tough to get in a groove because we hadn’t had practice since Friday, which is always my concern when we play a Monday game we are not mentally ready, which kind of hindered us in the start.” Thief River Falls had chances as well, one with Gretchen Cota on a breakaway that Pirate goalie Kambelle Freije got a blocker on to make the save, and a little later, Freije stopped a couple of Grade A chances again with two point-blank shots that were steered aside by the Pirate sophomore goalie. Crookston would finally get on the board about eight minutes into the period. Crookston was on a power play, and Tull and Addie Fee both got the puck toward the net Cassie Solheim, with her long reach, got a stick on it and pushed it past Hamre to make it 1-0 for the Pirates. “It was good to see Cassie score,” said Meyer, “we moved the puck pretty good on that power play, and they were rewarded with the goal. We could have had a couple more.”

SECOND PERIOD
Crookston would score another power-play goal in the second period about halfway through when Tull came walking down the slot and was hit with a pass from Fee, and a one-timer gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead., “Yeah, that was a great pass by Addie,” said Tull, “I just shot it, and it went in. I thought I missed the net on that one.” Crookston was now 2-3 on the power play. Also, about halfway through the period, Crookston goalie, Freije, had problems with one of her pads, and she left the game Kailee Magsam came in and had to make a couple of quick saves, and after about three minutes, Freije got her equipment fixed and re-entered the game. “Kambelle had a bit of a pad malfunction where she had to come off,” said coach Meyer, “Kailee did a good job backing her up. Kambelle came back in, and she was a little rattled.” Thief River Falls would avoid a shutout as they scored with under two minutes to go in the second period, and it was Gretchen Cota who could slide a slow shot across the crease and into the far side with Freije down to the near side. “Kambelle knew she could make that save, but Gretchen did an excellent job getting it past her at the far post,” said Meyer. Crookston’s lead was cut in half, 2-1, which is how the period ended. “It was tough for me to find the words after the second period,” said Meyer, “it was coming down to a more mental part of the game. Sometimes we were fanning on shots, missing passes which went to them, and they’d turn it into a break. It was wearing on us mentally, and I think that is where those breakdowns came from.”

THIRD PERIOD
Thief River Falls would take a quick penalty to start the third period, and Crookston capitalized with their third power play of the game. This was the doing of the Pirate leading scorer, Reese Swanson, who had the puck in the far corner in the Prowlers zone. Nobody picked her up, and Swanson skated right to the left of Hamre and rolled it over the goalie to give Crookston a 3-1 lead with just under 13 minutes to go in the game. “Kudos to our special teams today,” said Meyer, “it was something that I just threw on them, and it worked in our favor. We had to switch the power play because the umbrella wasn’t working, and I just sprung this one on them, and they figured it out, talked amongst themselves to figure out what worked, and it did tonight.” Crookston would add another insurance goal exactly halfway through the period, and it was Tull scoring her second of the game, getting her rebound past Hamre to give Crookston their biggest lead of 4-1. “I shot, and it went in,” said Tull in a post-game interview!!
Crookston would hold that lead to pick up their 12th win of the season. Crookston was 3 for 6 on the power play and killed off two penalties. Crookston outshot Thief River Falls 48-22 in the game. The Pirates will go to East Grand Forks for another Section 8A game on Thursday. The Pirates have beaten East Grand Forks once already, and even though the two teams will play a third time at Mayville, Crookston would almost clinch the #2 seed for the Section 8A playoffs behind Warroad. “That is our goal,” said coach Meyer, “we are coming down to the nitty-gritty of the season, and those are the games we have to win. We got this one done, which will be the main focus for Thursday at East Grand Forks.

Crookston is 12-4-1 and ranked 10th in the State Class A rankings. Thief River Falls drops to 4-14 on the season and are off until Saturday, when they are at East Grand Forks.
JV – Crookston won 5-1

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