NORTHERN LAKES BEATS CROOKSTON BOYS HOCKEY 9-4

Northern Lakes used a five-goal second period to pull away from the Crookston Pirates Boys Hockey team in a 9-4 victory on Thursday night in a game played at the Breezy Point Hockey Arena in Pequot Lakes. 

The Pirates took a rare lead this season less than three minutes into the game when Jack Doda raced out on breakaway and buried the puck for his team-leading 15th goal of the season giving Crookston the 1-0 lead with 14:24 to go in the first.  “Forced a play on their defenseman, and he just lost the puck,” said Pirates coach Josh Hardy.  “You put Jack Doda on a breakaway he’s going to bury it more times than not.  It was nice to get a lead early, and I thought we played pretty well in the first period.  We talked about being hard to play against from the get-go and outworking every team we play, and I thought we did that in the first period.” Tyler Seeling would tie the game for Northern Lakes just under five minutes later when he beat Pirate starting goaltender Jaren Bailey to tie the game at 1-1 with 9:47 to go in the first period.  The Pirates had an opportunity to take the lead late in the game, but a shot of Noah Kiel rolled off the pipe with two minutes to go.  

Northern Lakes would put the game away during a five-goal second period.  Shane Donovan would kick off the scoring on his way to a hat trick and six points for Northern Lakes when scored the go-ahead goal making it 2-1 with 12:43 left in the period.  Two minutes later, Northern Lakes leading scoring Hunter Nybakken would make it 3-1 with an assist to Donovan with 10:29 to go in the second.  Thirty-six seconds later, Quady Bernu would score unassisted for 4-1 lead.  “The guy made a beautiful shot on the first goal,” said Hardy.  “The second one we missed picking up a guy and stopping the puck, which leads to a goal five-hole.  Then off the faceoff guy makes a nice play, and all of a sudden we blink our eyes and its 4-1.  Jaren played well, but we need a spark, so we switch goalies and played okay.  In the first ten minutes of that period, we played the opposite of the first period.  We played soft, not forechecking or playing guys and waiting for them to come to us.”  Following the fourth goal, the Pirates would switch to Carter Nelson in goal, but he would also struggle to keep Northern Lakes off the scoreboard.  The Pirates would get a goal back when junior Gavin Anderson scored his first varsity with assists by Quinn Westlake and Joey Doda to make it 4-2 Northern Lakes with 3:09 to go in the period.  “We made a move this week to move Gavin back to forward,” said Hardy.  “I know he had two tonight. He could’ve had three or four.  He had one the goalie made an unreal save on and had one that hit the crossbar.  It was a really solid game from Gavin Anderson, and I was very pleased with his play top to bottom.” Northern Lakes responded by burying two pucks into the back of the net over the next 25 seconds.  Just 16 seconds after the Pirates goal, Donovan took a pass from Owen Miller and scored his second goal of the game to make it 5-2 Northern Lakes.  Then nine seconds later, Donovan passed the puck off to Caiden Kjelstrom, who fired it into the goal to make it 6-2 with 2:44 to go in the period. “Blink our eyes, and we’re down in a big hole again,” said Hard.  “Obviously disappointed with that.  Standing next to a guy isn’t enough. You have to have stick-on-stick, and when a puck comes to a guy, knock him down.  We just weren’t strong enough in those scoring areas tonight, and they made us pay.” 

Trailing by four goals entering the third, the Pirates had a big hole to dig out of but were able to get off to a good start when Noah Kiel scored his first of the year off a pass from Anderson to make it 6-3 with 15:42 to play.  “Noah admittedly, I think, was a little disappointed in his play in the second period,” said Hardy.  “We talked to him trying to get him back up telling him he was getting one here and sure enough next shift he buries one.  That was fun to see, and he made a nice shot on net.  He got the shot through, and we had guys screening.”  The Pirates would strike again to cut the lead to 6-4 with 14:21 to play when Gavin Anderson scored his second of the game with an assist to Ty Hamre.  “Gav gets another one, and like I said, he played a great game,” said Hardy.  “It’s 6-2 to start the period, and we talked that we were playing in this game, and scoring four goals was nothing if we could keep them off the board, so it was a good start to the period.” Northern Lakes once again had the answer, however, scoring three goals over the final ten minutes.  The first came when Donovan picked up his third goal of the game off a pass from Kjelstrom with 9:45 to play.  With 7:06 to play, Hunter Nybakken would make it 8-4 with his second goal of the game.  “The first one we didn’t tie up off the faceoff, so they come down, but we’ve got numbers and guys there,” said Hardy.  “Donovan just made a beauty of a play.  Shot it right through our defenseman’s legs, and Carter was screened, making it a beauty of a shot.  And then a shot from the point bounces off two, three guys and goes in the back of the net.  Again, all of a sudden, we blink, and we’re in a big hole again.” Kyler Couture would cap the scoring with a powerplay goal when a Pirate penalty killer whiffed on a clearing attempt, and Couture was able to jump on the puck for a goal to make it 9-4.   “I thought we played better then the end result was,” said Hardy.  “We score four goals we should be feeling pretty good typically, but you’re not going to win a lot of games giving up nine goals.  Defensively we have to shore some things up.  The word among a lot of us is we’re frustrated.  There are lots of positive signs tonight.  I like the way Gavin Anderson played, Ty Hamre had a good game, and Joey Doda stepped up key to our offense tonight with hard work in the o-zone and d-zone.  It’s disappointing as it felt like a game we could’ve won, but we let it get away from us.” 

The Pirates fall to 1-17 and will travel to East Grand Forks for a Section 8A game on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. 

1st Period
14:24 – Crox – Jack Doda (15) (unassisted)
9:47 – NL – Tyler Seeling (Quady Bernu, Jamison St. Clair)

2nd Period
12:43 – NL – Shane Donovan (Erik Larson)
10:29 – NL – Hunter Nybakken (Shane Donovan, Caiden Kjelstrom)
9:53 – NL – Quady Bernu (unassisted)
3:09 – Crox – Gavin Anderson (1) (Quinn Westlake, Joey Doda)
2:53 – NL – Shane Donovan (2) (Owen Miller, Caiden Kjelstrom)
2:44 – NL – Caiden Kjelstrom (Shane Donovan, Owen Miller)

3rd Period
15:42 – Crox – Noah Kiel (1) (Gavin Anderson, Ty Hamre)
14:21 – Crox – Gavin Anderson (2) (Ty Hamre)
9:45 – NL – Shane Donovan (3) (Caiden Kjelstrom)
7:06 – NL –  Hunter Nybakken (2) (Caiden Kjelstrom, Owen Miller)
4:04 – NL – Kyler Couture (Hunter Nybakken, Shane Donovan) (PP)