Pirate Girls Hockey Ties Jamestown 2-2

The Crookston Pirates Girl’s Hockey team overcame a 2-0 deficit but were unable to score a third-straight goal in a 2-2 tie against Jamestown Blue Jays in a non-section game played at Kim Braaten Memorial Arena in Mayville, North Dakota.

Both sides split possession in a fairly balanced first period. Crookston managed to outshoot the Blue Jays 9-7 in the first period, however, Jamestown was able to take the lead just prior to the first intermission. With 1:47 left in the opening period, the Blue Jays’ Alexis Kirkaby skated into the Crookston zone down the right wing and centered a delicate pass to an unmarked and hard-charging Abby Grounds who tapped in the one-timer giving the visitors a 1-0 lead after one period. “There was still some standing around on our part and we weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe. “That was a little disappointing, but after we talked about it and came out in the second, third, and overtime and played much better I thought.”
Jamestown started the second period with a few minutes of possession in their attacking zone. Ella Roaldson, the Blue Jays top-scorer last season, skated into the Pirates’ slot before firing a wrist shot past Crookston goaltender Grace Koshney giving Jamestown a 2-0 11:30 into the second period. “That was a giveaway on our part,” explained Moe. “That was just a kid for us trying to do too much and that’s what happens sometimes. When you’re trying to do too much you actually harm yourself and your team a little bit by getting out of position.” The ice seemed to slant in the Pirates favor the remainder of the second period. With Crookston dominating possession in the Jamestown defensive zone. Catherine Tiedemann was able to skate free into the left-wing circle where she wristed a shot into the top right corner of the net beating Blue Jays goalie Erin Anderson glove-side to score the Pirates’ first goal of the season while cutting the deficit to 2-1 with 3:42 left in the period. “She was able to pull away a little bit,” explained Moe. “I thought the defensemen had the angle on her, but never could quite get her and Catherine took nice, hard shot over their goaltender’s shoulder. Catherine is that type of kid, she’s going to have chances and she had quite a few chances tonight and that’s going to be good for us. If we’re getting her chances that means we’re doing good stuff offensively.” Just before the end of the period, Jamestown’s Maddy Kamstra was called for a two-minute minor penalty giving Crookston a power-play heading into the final period down 2-1. The Pirates capitalized on the extra the skater to open the third period when MacKenze Epema took the puck up the left wing boards and sent a slow rolling shot that tucked just inside the far post tying the game at 2-2 with 16:00 left in regulation. “We’d only drawn it up yesterday and we really didn’t get into it,” said Moe of the Pirates’ power play offense. “Kenze Epema made a really nice play and the girls came back to the bench and said, ‘that was lucky,’ and I told them you make your own luck. Kenze did a fantastic job she back-checked extremely hard, taking the puck away from their girl, outmuscled her and took it back towards the Jamestown end and nobody really took her so she was able to skate into the zone and it wasn’t the hardest shot she’ll ever take. It was deflected by one of their defensemen, I think, and just snuck in the corner. So yeah, it was maybe a little bit lucky, but you make your own luck by working hard and doing other positive things.” Crookston continued to hold the possession most of the third period tallying 11 shots to just 5 from the Blue Jays in the final 17 minutes of regulation, but neither side managed to secure a game-winning goal sending the game to over time.
Tired legs prevailed in the eight-minute sudden-death overtime period. The lone quality scoring chance for either side in the added time came from Crookston’s Catherine Tiedemann when the wing managed to find open ice in the attacking slot with under two minutes left. The sophomore sent a shot just high above the far post, where she had scored in the second period, keeping the game deadlocked at 2-2 and ensuring the final score would remain tied at 2-2 after 59 minutes were played. “I thought we outplayed them in the second and third periods,” said Moe. “I think it was pretty even in the first, so we probably deserved a better outcome tonight, but that’s hockey. I thought their goalie (Erin Anderson) played exceptionally and we had a lot of zone time, but we didn’t get those grade-A opportunities out in front of her either. The girls competed and that was a positive for us. I didn’t think we competed all that well last week, but I think tonight was better. We took a step forward today.”

The Pirates improve to 0-1-1 this season and will return to the ice on Friday night in the Thief River Falls Tournament against Park Rapids beginning at 6 p.m. with the Riverview Health Pregame Show beginning at 5:30 p.m. on KROX. Jamestown improves to 0-0-1 to start their season.