The Crookston Pirates Boys Hockey team scored six unanswered goals including three first career varsity goals, two coming from seniors, in a 7-1 win over the Red Lake Falls Eagles on Senior Night at the Crookston Sports Center.
The Crookston Pirates and Red Lake Falls Eagles traded goals early in Tuesday night’s contest. The Pirates struck first in the opening two minutes when Brock Heppner slid a puck to Joey Doda, who wired it over the glove of the Red Lake Falls goaltender Brenden Larson for a 1-0 lead with 15:12 left in the first. “That was exactly how we wanted to start,” said Pirate coach Josh Hardy. “It was a pretty play capped off with Joey taking care of business and getting us up right away. The Eagles responded two minutes later when Zak Kennett brought the puck through the left circle and blasted a missile over the shoulder of Pirate goaltender Jack Ricord to tie the game 1-1 with 13:22 left. Ninety-one seconds later the Pirates would take the lead for good when Heppner applied pressure in the corner forcing the puck along the goal line towards the goal, the puck bounced off Larson’s pads and sat in front when Heppner swooped in and stuffed the puck home for a 2-1 lead. Quinn Westlake would make it 3-1 when he first a shot off the right wall that hit a defenders stick and bounced to the goaltenders left just inside the goal post with 6:35 to go in the period, forcing a goaltender change for the Eagles. A little more than three minutes later Heppner won an offensive zone faceoff to Eric Delorme who fired a shot towards the net that Doda got his stick on to redirect into the back of the net for a 4-1 lead with 3:05 left until intermission. “It was a nice wakeup call when we let Kennett scored and after that, we didn’t a really nice job of recognizing when he was on the ice and not letting him get free after that,” said Hardy. “That last goal was really pretty with Eric walking off the wall on the facebook and threw it on net and Joey did a really nice job getting his stick on it. Any goaltender, not just one that just came into the game is going to struggle with a puck that’s deflected up 10 feet in front of the net.”
The Pirates would extend their lead during the second period. With 11:11 to go in the second, Trey Christopherson fired a shot on goal, fought through a defender to the rebound and scored his first career varsity goal making it 5-1. Both teams traded penalties in the period resulted in several short powerplays before the Pirates scored an even-strength goal with 2:49 to play in the period. Sam Overgaard got the puck to Kaleb Thingelstad coming down the right side. Thingelstad made a move that drew the Eagles goaltender out of the crease giving Thingelstad a wide-open net which he took advantage of for his first career varsity goal to make it 6-1. “We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times there getting the powerplay then taking a penalty,” said Hardy. “But we were able to get three guys scoring their first career goals. Trey was looking for it tonight, he had a nice shot, got his own rebound and put it in from a crazy angle. Kaleb jumps on a loose puck kind of dances the goalie and pulls him right out the net something he does in practice but hasn’t found the time and space to do in a game until now.” The Pirates picked up a late powerplay during which they moved the puck effectively before Delorme found Jacob Anderson in the right circle for a one-timer that the senior buried for his first career varsity goal and a 7-1 lead with 15 seconds remaining in the second. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of guys more excited when handing out pucks for first career goals,” said Hardy. “Three guys and two seniors in one period. And Jake Anderson has played a ton of minutes for us over the year. The group was so happy for him and I don’t know how he hadn’t even gotten an accidental one at this point.”
Neither team would score in the third period although the Pirates Keaton Goering and Killian Kuchan both had opportunities to pick up their first career points but couldn’t capitalize. Senior Tanner Janorschke played the third period in goal for the Pirates, his first varsity minutes stopping all four shots he faced. “We got everybody involved here in the third period,” said Hardy. “A lot of guys who don’t normally see a lot of varsity time got to get in their play some good minutes. Tanner was great, he got tested a couple of times and did a nice job. We mixed up our lines and got guys like Keaton Goering, Killian Kuchan and Mason LaPlante regular shifts. The boys like that with boys they’ve grown up playing with getting a chance to get out there when they haven’t gotten too many opportunities to jump up on varsity.”
The Pirates improve to 8-15-1 and await tomorrows Section 8A seeding meeting to see where they will play another home game this season. The regular season will conclude with a road game at Roseau on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. With the loss Red Lake Falls drops to 5-16-0.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Red Lake Falls | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| CROOKSTON | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
1st Period
15:12 – Crookston – Joey Doda (11) (Brock Heppner, Logan Wardner)
13:22 – RLF – Zak Kennett (40) (Hunter Pahlen)
11:57 – Crookston – Brock Heppner (11) unassisted
6:35 – Crookston – Quinn Westlake (4) (Ben Andringa)
3:05 – Crookston – Joey Doda (12) (Eric Delorme, Brock Heppner)
2nd Period
11:11 – Crookston – Trey Christopherson (1) (Kaleb Thingelstad)
2:49 – Crookston – Kaleb Thingelstad (1) (Sam Overgaard)
:15 – Crookston – Jacob Anderson (1) (Eric Delorme, Logan Wardner) (PP)
3rd Period
No Scoring
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Brenden Larson- RLF | 6 | X | 2 | 8 |
| Andrew Johnson-RLF | 7 | 17 | 7 | 31 |
| Jack Ricord – Crookston | 6 | 4 | X | 10 |
| Tanner Janorschke-Crox | X | X | 4 | 4 |
