Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey’s late comeback falls short in loss to Fort Francis

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team scored two third period goals, but the comeback fell short in a 4-2 loss to the Fort Francis Muskies in a game played at the Crookston Sports Center.

FIRST PERIOD
Fort Francis put pressure on the Pirate defense at the start of the game with a weak shot on goal in the first minutes. 40 seconds later, Fort Francis had the puck behind the Pirate net and slid a pass in front of the net, and Crookston goalie Madi Abrams stopped a one-timer to keep the game scoreless two minutes into the game.
Crookston’s Emma LaPlante drew a tripping penalty, and the Pirates tried to take advantage of the advantage. Within the first 15 seconds of the power play, they had two solid scoring chances, but one shot went over the net, and another shot went wide, and the game was still scoreless.
Crookston committed their first penalty of the game and had a shot on goal in the first 20 seconds. Fort Frances came back, and Sienna Tom fired a shot from the point, and Bella Fry tipped the shot in for a 1-0 6:45 into the game.
With eight minutes left in the period, Crookston’s Adley Vigness rifled a shot on net, and it clanged off the post. A short time later, the Pirates had the puck in front of the net and Christina Hershey put a shot on goal, but the Muskie goalie made the save and Fort Francis held on to a 1-0 lead.
Crookston started putting a little more pressure on the Muskie defense and Kinsley Wangen had two shots on goal, but the goalie made the saves.
Both teams had several shots on goal in the final minutes and Fort Francis took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

SECOND PERIOD
The second period stared with each team getting a quality shot on goal over the first several minutes. Crookston was called for a penalty, giving Fort Francis a one-man advantage. The Muskies took advantage of the power play as Logan Neurinski had a shot on goal and the puck was in front of the net and Bella Fry slapped the puck into the net for her second power play penalty of the game and Fort Francis led 2-0 just over five minutes into the period.
Crookston came back into the Fort Francis zone and Hershey blasted a shot on goal and it hit the pipe, the second Pirate shot to clang off the pipe in the game. Fort Francis added their third goal of the game when Sophia Tanguay had the puck behind the Pirate net and Payton Harbluk got a pass in front and back-handed the shot top shelf for a 3-0 lead.
Fort Francis committed a penalty with four minutes left int he period and Crookston had the puck and front and Aubrey Bartrum fired a shot on goal, but the Muskie goalie made a big save to keep the shutout going and Forth Franics took a 3-0 lead into the second intermission.

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston started the third period on a good note as they got a shot on goal, and Peyton Demarais slapped at the puck and put the shot on goal, but a save was made. A few seconds later, Fort Francis had the puck in the Crookston zone, and a pass went over to Peyton Harpin, who just checked in for the first time in the game, and she let a shot go from the blue line, which bounced into the net to give Fort Francis a 4-0 lead.
Fort Francis continued to put pressure on the Crookston Defense and had several shots on goal, but the Pirates’ Abrams was able to come up with some big saves.
Crookston started to put some pressure on the Fort Francis defense and Adley Vigness got the puck at the top of the circle and sniped a shot past the goali to get the Pirates on the board with just under seven minutes to go in the game. The goal seemed to spark the Pirates with the help of two penalties against Fort Francis, Crookston had a 5-on-3 opportunity. The Pirates took advantage of the two-man advantage and got the puck in the Muskie zone and Logan Brekken got a shot off from the blue line, the puck was bouncing in front of the net and Peyton Demarais slapped the puck into the net for her first varsity goal to get the Pirates within a 4-2 deficit with 4:33 left in the game.
Crookston continued to put pressure on the Muskie defense, but couldn’t find the back of the net and Fort Francis held on for a 4-2 victory.

Crookston drops to 0-2 on the year and will travel to East Grand Forks on Tuesday. A game you can hear on KROX Radio. Fort Francis improves to 11-2 on the year.
J.V. – Fort Francis won 5-2