CROOKSTON GIRL’S HOCKEY SCORES 10 TIMES IN WIN OVER WAHPETON-BRECKENRIDGE

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team had hat tricks from two defensemen, Ashlyn Bailey and Reese Swanson, to lead the Pirates to a 10-4 win over the Breckenridge-Wahpeton Blades in a first-time meeting between the two teams at Stern Arena in Wahpeton North Dakota.

First Period
Crookston was 0 for 6 on the power play in Friday night’s win over Thief River Falls 5-1 in the season opener. On Monday night, they came out and scored the game’s first goal on a power play by Bailey. She received a beautiful pass from behind the Blades net from Brekken Tull, and just four minutes into the game, Crookston led 1-0.
The Blades tied it up about a minute and a half later when Reagan Wohlers made a nice play in the Pirates zone, stealing a puck and had a quick shot to score.
With just under four minutes left in the period, Crookston junior defenseman Swanson circled behind the Blades net, swung around in the slot area, and beat the Blades goalie Kolle Schuler, and Crookston led 2-1.
With 32 seconds left in the period, Reagan Wohlers scored her second goal, and it was much like her first as she got in front of Magsam all alone again and snapped a hard high shot to tie it at 2-2. It looked like the period would end tied at two, except, Wahpeton-Breckenridge iced the puck with 22 seconds left, and Crookston would get the face-off in the Blades zone. Brynley Coleman would win the draw to Tull, who fed Addie Fee, who took a shot and the rebound came to Coleman, who found the back of the net with nine seconds left of the period, and Crookston led 3-2 after the first 17 minutes. “Yeah, we had a lot of scoring chances, which was good as we scored three times,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer. “We gave them some good chances. They have some good players, with a senior first line, and we let #3 get loose twice for scores, so we wanted to correct that for the second period and be a little more cohesive and consistent too.”

Second Period
Nobody scored in the period’s first 12 and a half minutes, but not because of a lack of chances. Freshmen Taylor Field, who has a lot of speed, was alone on a breakaway and stopped. A minute later, Swanson and Fee came in on a two-on-one, and Swanson slipped a nice pass to Fee, who was also stuffed by Schuler. Wahpeton-Breckenridge also had a couple of solo chances, but Magsam handled those with aplomb. Field used that speed again with a breakaway, and this time she solved Schuler, and the Sacred Heart product scored her first career goal for the Pirates and gave Crookston a 4-2 lead. With two and a half minutes left in the period, Bailey, another freshman, added her second goal of the game, and Crookston led 5-2 after two periods. “We have good team speed,” said Meyer, “Ashlyn and Taylor showed it in those two goals. It seemed like a more wide-open period, with both teams going end to end and putting a lot of pressure on both goalies. We had a nice period on both sides of the puck with good offense and Kailee playing well in goal, shutting them down.”

Third Period
Crookston came out strong in the period while scoring the first three goals in the opening nine and a half minutes, with freshman Emma LaPlante scoring her second goal in two games with a nice pass from Tull. A minute later, Bailey found room on the right side where she found the back of the net to make it 7-2. Fee added the eighth Pirate goal of the game when she made a nice play coming out of the corner with the puck, was behind the Blades’ goal, and slipped it by the left skate of Schuler for the second Pirate shorthanded goal, and it was 8-2, forcing running time.
Running time lasted a couple of minutes as Wahpeton-Breckenridge’s Kennedy Schuler slipped loose for a breakaway and scored to make it 8-3 with five and a half minutes left. Crookston’s Swanson would score twice in eight seconds on similar shots from the slot area in the last minute to make it 10-3. Not to be denied, Wohlers would get her hat trick, scoring on a rebound with 26 seconds left, and it ended 10-4 with the Pirates moving to 2-0 on the season. “Yeah, it’s nice to get the win on the road, and we played pretty well,” said Meyer. “We got a power-play goal and a couple of shorthanded ones, which was nice because we haven’t worked on either very much. It was good to see all the lines score, and our defensemen continue to score. It was a win, and we’ll keep building off and keep getting better each game.”

The Pirates will be at home for the first time this year when they host Fort Frances, Ontario, at the Crookston Sports Center on Saturday at NOON, which will also be on KROX RADIO at 11:30 AM will be LIVE VIDEO STREAMED on the KROX app as well. “We’ve never played them before,” said Meyer. “They were searching to play more Minnesota teams, and I think they’ve scheduled a few this year. They will be at East Grand Forks on Friday night and then at our place on Saturday.”

1st Period
4:13 – Crookston – Ashlyn Bailey (1)  (Brekken Tull)   (PP)
5:50 – BW – Reagan Wohlers unassisted
13:15 – Crookston – Reese Swanson (2)  unassisted  (SH)
16:28 – BW – Reagan Wohlers unassisted
16:59 – Crookston – Brynlee Coleman  (2)  (Addie Fee, Brekken Tull)

2nd Period
4:28 – Crookston – Taylor Field (1)   unassisted
14:28 – Crookston – Ashlyn Bailey (2)   unassisted

3rd Period
3:54 – Crookston – Emma LaPlante (2)  (Brekken Tull)
5:07 – Crookston – Ashlyn Bailey (3)   (Addie Fee)
9:37 – Crookston- Addie  Fee (1)  unassisted   (SH)
11:23 – BW – Kennedy Schuler  unassisted
16:09 – Crookston – Reese Swanson (3)  (Jenna Seaver, Cassie Solheim)
16:18 – Crookston – Reese Swanson (4) (Emma LaPlante)
16:34 – BW – Reagan Wohlers (Karsyn Neppl, Kennedy Schuler)