Eric Delorme recorded five points including a hat trick as the Crookston Pirate Boy’s Hockey team beat the International Falls Broncos 6-3 on Saturday afternoon.
Erick Delorme would get the Pirates started early on Saturday when he took a pass from Trey Christopherson before beating a defender wide before walking out in front of the net and burying his 18th goal of the season for a 1-0 lead with 13:40 to play in the first. The Pirates would make it 2-0 with 1:26 to go in the period when Delorme again carried the puck wide around a Bronco defender this time eliciting more help from the defense before flicking a pass out front to Brock Heppner who banged it home. The Pirates Sam Overgaard was called for a five-minute boarding penalty with 45 seconds to play in the period and the Broncos would capitalize before the end of the period. Defenseman Joe Glowack who delivered a shot towards the goal that was redirected by the stick of Jaxon Germain just past Pirate goaltender Jack Ricord to cut the lead to 2-1 with 18 secs to play in the period. “We were really good in the first period today,” said Pirate coach Josh Hardy. “We set a physical, aggressive tone early and carried that throughout the game. We were feeling really good up by two goals and then took a bad penalty that they were able to exploit for a late goal.”
The Pirates would have to kill off 4:15 seconds of the 5-minute major to Overgaard to open the second period but were able to do much more. Ben Andringa was aggressive working shorthanded and was able to steal a puck and walk out front before taking a between the legs shot to extend the Pirate lead to 3-1 with 16:11 to play in the second. “We talked in the locker room that teams can tend to get complacent on a five-minute power play,” said Hardy. “We wanted to come out to kill off the penalty, but we also wanted to be aggressive if we got the chance. Been definitely was aggressive and most kids can’t pull off a between the legs shot but it’s not the first time he’s done that. It was highlight reel material and a big momentum booster after their goal late in the first.” The Broncos would respond five minutes later when Glowack fed a pass to Jordan Smith who was able to beat Ricord and pull the Broncos back to within one at 3-2 with 10:53 to go in the period. The Pirates would extend their lead back to two late in the period when Brock Heppner made a play in the neutral zone to spring the Pirates for a 2-on-1 break. Heppner slid a pass across the slot to Delorme in the right circle and he lifted it top shelf for a 4-2 lead with 5:08 to play. International Falls would answer again to cut the lead back to one with 2:59 to go in the period when Glowack picked up his third assist of the game this time feeding Brenden Benike who slid one past Ricord to cut the lead to 4-3. “A lot of what we did in the second period was what got us into trouble last night,” said Hardy. “Playing with a lead is something we’ve struggled to do all year. We tend to start trying to make to many individual plays and not involve the team and that gets us in trouble.”
International Falls came out strong in the third period and Pirates had to weather a storm early. The Pirates were finally able to turn the tide back in their favor when Brock Heppner passed the puck to Delorme standing in front of the Bronco goal. Delorme deflected the pass into the back of the net to complete his hat trick and give the Pirates a 5-3 lead with 7:09 to play. The Pirates would add insurance when Jack Doda fed a pass to Logan Wardner who carried the puck into the offensive one and threw a shot on goal that found the back of the net for a 6-3 lead with 3:12 to play. “The message during the second intermission was – here we have another opportunity to prove if we can finish a game – which we have struggled repeatedly with,” said Hardy. “International Falls came out strong but we were able to persevere and it’s nice to see Wardner scoring as he was a big part of our team missing for long stretches of the season with an injury.”
The Pirates improve to 7-15-1 and will play Red Lake Falls in Crookston Tuesday in their final Section 8A game before Wednesday’s seeding meeting. The puck will drop at 7:00 p.m. International Falls drops to 7-14-1 with the loss.
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| CROOKSTON | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| International Falls | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
1st Period
13:40 – Crookston – Eric Delorme (Trey Christopherson)
1:26 – Crookston – Brock Heppner (Eric Delorme)
0:18 – IFalls – Jaxon Germain (Joe Glowack, Kian Gonzales) PP
2nd Period
16:11 – Crookston – Ben Andringa (Unassisted) SH
10:53 – IFalls – Jordan Smith (Joe Glowack)
3rd Period
5:08 – Crookston – Eric Delorme (Brock Heppner)
2:59 – IFalls – Brenden Benike (Joe Glowack, Travis Kalar) PP
7:09 – Crookston – Eric Delorme (Brock Heppner)
3:12 – Crookston – Logan Wardner (Jack Doda, Eric Delorme)
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Jack Ricord – Crox | 7 | 12 | 8 | 27 |
| Max Marcotte- IF | 10 | 8 | 5 | 23 |
