sports

CROOKSTON PIRATE BOYS HOCKEY LOSE TO LITTLE FALLS

January 21, 2023

The Crookston Pirates Boy’s Hockey team couldn’t keep up with the speedy Little Falls Flyers in a 4-1 loss on Saturday at the Crookston Sports Center in Crookston.

FIRST PERIOD –
Both teams came out a little slow, and it looked like the teams were feeling each other out for the first handful of minutes. After Little Falls settled in, they started using their team speed to beat Crookston to loose pucks the rest of the period. Crookston didn’t get a shot on goal until about halfway through the period, while Little Falls had 16 shots on goal. Even though the Pirates were outshot 16-1 in the period, neither team scored, and it was a scoreless tie going into the second period.

SECOND PERIOD –
After 19 minutes of no scoring to start the game, things changed quickly in the second period. Crookston’s Jack Doda stole the puck at center ice and sped into the zone all alone, and sniped a shot in the upper right-hand corner of the net to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for Little Falls to respond, as they scored 17 seconds later when Matthew Cooper got a pass from Luke Avery on the backdoor to tie the game at 1-1 2:17 into the period.
Little Falls’ goal gave them a big spark, and they controlled play for the rest of the period. With a little over three minutes left in the period, the Flyers had a beautiful one-timer from Luke Avery, who was all alone to the left of the net, and he rifled the shot into the back of the net for a 2-1 lead.
Less than a minute later, Matthew Filippi caught a pass in stride and flew into the Pirate zone on a breakaway, and went five hole to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead, a lead they took into the second intermission.

THIRD PERIOD –
Little Falls continued to dominate the third period while using their speed to beat Crookston to loose pucks. The Flyers had several scoring opportunities in the period and finally cashed one of them in eight minutes into the period when Joey Willinski scored the fourth Flyer goal of the game for a 4-1 lead. Little Falls didn’t have as many scoring opportunities the rest of the game, but they held on for a 4-1 victory.

Crookston drops to 2-14 on the year and will travel to Hallock on Tuesday to take on the Kittson County Central Bearcats in a Section 8A matchup. Little Falls improves to 9-7-1 on the year.

FOR COACH JOSH HARDY’S POST-GAME COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW-

FOR THE VIDEO REPLAY, CLICK HERE

Scoring	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
Little Falls	0	3	1	4
Crookston	0	1	0	1

1st Period
No Scoring

2nd Period
2:00 – Crookston – Jack Doda (16) (Unassisted)
2:17 – LF – Matthew Cooper (Luke Avery)
13:56 – LF – Luke Avery (Coltin Johnson, Lawrence Filippi) PP
14:38 – LF – Matthew Filippi (Matthew Cooper, Carter Oothoudt)

3rd Period
8:00 – LF – Joey Willinski (Ryan Oothoudt, Garrett Lindberg)