The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team built up a 3-1 lead and then held on to beat the East Grand Forks Green Wave in a Section 8A game played at the Civic Center in East Grand Forks.
Crookston started the game out quick when freshman Ashlyn Bailey walked around two Green Wave players and in the slot let a hard shot low to give Crookston the 1-0 lead two and a half minutes into the game. Crookston controlled most of the action in the first period, but just had the one goal to show for it. “It was good to see Ashlyn getting us off to the 1-0 start,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “I wish we would have tested out their goalie a little more and get into the gritty areas for rebounds that the East Grand Forks goalie was leaving for rebounds. All in all it was a good period, controlled in their zone, passed the puck well, just needed to shoot more.”
The Pirates scored the only two goals of the second period. About half way through, Bailey got her second of the game,” Ashlyn did a great job thinking more offensively, calling for the puck in the high slot and Taylor (Field) hit her with a beautiful pass from behind the goal line and Ashlyn ripped a beauty of a shot, great play by both of them.” Crookston continued to put the pressure on and about five minutes later, Parker Strand, a sophomore from Mayville, N.D. playing for the Pirates as a coop between the schools, with a scramble in front of the East Grand Forks net was able was able to find the puck and tucked it in for a 3-0 Crookston lead. “On Parker’s goal, she stood tall to get a loose puck that trickled behind the East Grand Forks goalie and buried it into the back of the net.” The Pirates outshot the Green Wave 21-11 through two periods of play. “It was nice to get a couple more in the second period and Kailee (Magsam) played strong in goal for us in that period as they put seven shots on us in the period. We wanted to go out strong and put it away in the third period.”
It appeared the Pirates were trying to push it offensively with a lot more pinching by the Pirate defensemen and the Green Wave took advantage of one of them just under five minutes left in the game, with East Grand Forks Blake Schultz was able to beat the Pirates down ice and beat Magsam to pull East Grand Forks within 3-1. “We did give up many odd man rushes in the third period,” said Meyer, “we mostly did a good job back checking.” East Grand Forks ended up pulling the goalie with 1:50 to go in regulation and the Pirates picked up a number of icing calls trying to put a long shot in the empty net at least three times, but missed on all and it ended with a 3-1 Crookston win. “It was nice to get another Section win,” said Meyer, “East Grand Forks played hard and they came to play, but we had enough to get an important win.”
Crookston improves to 13-4-1 and probably assured themselves of a number two seed for the Section 8A Tournament next month. The Pirates have beaten Thief River Falls and East Grand Forks twice each and wins over Detroit Lakes and International Falls with two losses to #1 Warroad. Even though Crookston will play East Grand Forks on January 27 in Mayville, N.D., but with two wins over EGF, they would still get the #2 seed if they would lose one to EGF. Crookston was slated to play in Walker Saturday night against Northern Lakes, but it was canceled. “We just couldn’t find a time to work for both schedules,” said Meyer. The Pirates are hoping they can find a game with another team that is short a game for the regular season. Crookston’s next game will be Tuesday at Bemidji.
JV – East Grand Forks won 4-2
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Scoring
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1st
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2nd
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3rd
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Final
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CROOKSTON
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1
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2
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0
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3
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East Grand Forks
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0
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0
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1
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1
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1st Period
2:34 – Crookston- Ashlyn Bailey (6) unassisted
2nd Period
8:06 – Crookston – Ashlyn Bailey (7) (Taylor Field)
13:32 – Crookston – Parker Strand (3) unassisted
3rd Period
12:14 – EGF – Blake Schultz unassisted
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Saves
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1st
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2nd
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3rd
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Final
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Kailee Magsam-Crox
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4
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7
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9
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20
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Britlyn Rasmussen-EGF
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9
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9
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13
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31
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