The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team had scored nine goals in a regular season in a 9-0 over Detroit Lakes in Mayville, N.D., on December 12. They matched that goal total this afternoon in a Section 8A Semi-Final game in a 9-2 win over the East Grand Forks Green Wave at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls. Addie Fee scored four goals and had three assists in the game as she was involved in the scoring on seven of the nine goals.
FIRST PERIOD
As you would expect, the Crookston Pirate girls had butterflies and were nervous before the Section 8A semi-final game against East Grand Forks. Crookston wanted a good start, and that came with the work of Emma Laplante and Addie Fee! Laplante went coast to coast, moving past East Grand Forks players, and then in the circle, made a move toward the net, beat the defenseman, and beat Britlyn Rasmussen, the Green Wave goalie, to make it 1-0, 1:21 into the game! Then it was Fee’s turn, 29 seconds later, as she took away an East Grand Forks pass, and she was at the top of the left circle and wristed a whistler top shelf to make it 2-0 not even two minutes into the game. “That’s the kind of start we wanted,” said Crookston coach Reed Olson, Emma is sort of our kick-starter with scoring goals, and she was again today. Then Addie was on fire with some great top-shelf shots as well.”
Crookston kept the foot on the gas but didn’t score another goal until there were five and a half minutes to go in the period. They did have a nice two-on-one play with Fee getting the puck to Jocelyn Field, who got around the defenseman and was all alone on Rasmussen and rang it off the pipe to the goalie left to keep it at 2-0. Fee, as the coach said, was on fire as she scored her sixth power-play goal of the season when she snapped another wrist shot up high and, in the corner, to make it 3-0. East Grand Forks would score on a freakish type goal a minute and a half later when Laura Pesch put a shot on Crookston goalie Kambelle Freije, who made a nice save. Still, the rebound was about seven feet in front of her, and with Freije down and nobody clearing the puck, Sophia Lukach was lying on her stomach about a foot behind the puck and was able to reach her stick out and slide it past Freije to cut the Crookston lead to 3-1. Crookston didn’t let the Green Wave score rattle them as Fee would get her third goal for the hat trick on another top-shelf blazer past Rasmussen to make it a 4-1 Crookston lead with 44 seconds left in the period, which is how it ended. Crookston outshot East Grand Forks 19-10 in the period. “We had a great period,” said Coach Olson, “we had a lot of momentum, and we talked about the key being let’s not let up, just keep going at them in the second period.”
SECOND PERIOD
Crookston certainly didn’t let up on the gas as they scored 18 seconds into the period when Jocelyn Field let a quick high shot herself past Rasmussen to make it 5-1. Fee wasn’t done either, as freshman defenseman Adley Vigness showed her speed going coast to coast. She got to the right side of the Green Wave net and put a perfect pass to Fee, and she just directed it in for her fourth goal of the game and 18th of the year. Crookston also showed some prowess in front of the net, either blocking shots or looking for tips or rebounds on the offensive side. Senior Parker Strand (from Mayville, N.D.) was in front when she tipped Kaylie Clauson’s shot from the top of the left circle past Rasmussen to make it 7-1. 20 seconds later, or 10 seconds left in the period, Crookston’s third line saw their first shift and then scored! It was sophomore Shyuh Burnette who pounced on Logan Brekken’s shot and scored her second goal of the year and it was 8-1 with Crookston leading after two periods. Freshman Peyton Demarais, who was playing in her third game of the year, had an assist. “When we sent out that third line, we told them, we expect them to get the puck in the offensive zone and do something, get in front, get a rebound or screen a shot and that’s what they did,” said Coach Olson. Crookston was outshooting East Grand Forks 33-16 after two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
It was running time to start the third period on the mercy rule when a team is leading by six goals in the third period. It went fast, and all the scoring came in just over a minute with five minutes to go in the game. East Grand Forks scored their second goal when the seventh leading point-getter in Minnesota girl’s hockey, Blake Schultz, was in the left circle to Freije and gunned a shot to the short side and beat the senior goalie to make it 8-2. It was Schultz 39th goal of the year. “Number eight is going to get her goals,” said Coach Olson, “she really rifled a shot past Kambelle. That’s going to happen with good players.” Crookston would answer a minute later when Strand scored on a power play for her second goal of the game to make it 9-1. Parker has been seeing some more time on the line with Field and Fee, and it seems to be working out. “Parker practice all week on our line,” said Fee, “then yesterday she didn’t, but she’s on the power play, and I like playing with her.” East Grand Forks actually outshot Crookston 9-6 in the third period but were outshot 40-25 in the game.
With the win Crookston is 14-10-1 on the year. Their work will be cut out for them in the Section 8A Championship on Thursday, February 13 at the REA in Thief River Falls, when they play the #1 ranked Class A team, the Warroad Warriors, who raised their record to 23-3 this afternoon in the first semi-final with a 7-0 win over host Thief River Falls. Crookston lost twice to Warroad during the regular season, but in their last game in Crookston, the Warriors scored a third-period power play to take a 2-1 lead and added an open net goal in the waning seconds to win 3-1. “I think that we know how we have to play against Warroad,” said Fee, “I’m sure we will look at the film from that game and get a game plan to work on next week.”
East Grand Forks ends their season with an 11-15-1 mark.
The Crookston/Warroad game on Thursday will be broadcast on KROX RADIO and KROX TV by Video Stream on You Tube starting at 6:15 PM.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| East Grand Forks | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Crookston | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
1st Period
1:21 – CROX – Emma LaPlante (11) (Ashlyn Bailey)
1:50 – CROX – Addie Fee (15) unassisted
11:28 – CROX – Addie Fee (16) (Kaylie Clauson, Parker Strand)
12:54 – EGF – Sophia Lukach (Laura Pesch)
16:16 – CROX – Addie Fee (17) (Jocelyn Field)
2nd Period
0:18 – CROX – Jocelyn Field (18) (Addie Fee)
8:08 – CROX – Addie Fee (18) (Adley Vigness)
16:30 – CROX – Parker Strand (8) (Kaylie Clauson, Addie Fee)
16:50 – CROX – Shyuh Burnett (2) (Logan Brekken, Peyton Demerais)
3rd Period
11:08 – EGF – Blake Schultz (39) (Sophie Lukach)
12:33 – Crookston – Parker Strand (9) ( (Adley Vigness, Addie Fee) (PP)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Britlyn Rasmussen-EGF | 15 | 10 | 6 | 31 |
| Kambelle Freije-Crox | 9 | 6 | 8 | 23 |
