#1 ranked Warroad comes back with two third period goals to beat the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team 3-1

The Warroad Warriors girl’s hockey team came into tonight’s game with a five-game winning streak and were ranked #1 in Class Minnesota Girl’s Hockey this week!! The last time Warroad was in Crookston for a game was in the Section 8A Championship when they scored two unanswered goals in the third period to beat the Pirates. Crookston was on a three-game winning streak after scoring 11 goals combined over Thief River Falls and East Grand Forks on Monday and Tuesday,.
Tonight it was much like last year as Warroad scored two goals in the third period including an open net goal as Warroad ended up with a 3-1 win over a scrappy Crookston Pirate team in a Section 8A win for the Warriors.

FIRST PERIOD
Crookston came out firing on all cylinders to start the game going toe to toe with the top ranked Warriors. Both Crookston lines were battling and making quick passes because of the lack of time and space against an outstanding team. It looked like nobody was going to score in the period until Crookston went on a power play with 58 seconds to go in the period. Crookston was able to set up in Warroad’s zone and Jocelyn Field spotted Addison Fee in front of the Warroad goal, hit her with a perfect pass and Fee found an opening in the five hole (between the goalie’s pads) for her 11^th goal of the season with 15.5 seconds to go in the period to make it 1-0. “We played well in the first period, and I think we got more confident as we went along,” said Reed Olson the Crookston Pirate head coach, “we had some good chances, and it was a lift to get that goal before the period ended. Jocelyn made a nice pass to Addie and she went five hole. We liked our play and told the girls that we must keep going as one goal isn’t going to probably win this game.”

SECOND PERIOD
The Crookston coach was right about one goal is not going to win this game. Just two minutes into the period, Warroad tied it up with a shot from Linnea Harren from top of the circle to the right of Pirate goalie Kambelle Freije, who was going to steer the puck off into the corner on a soft shot, but she mis-timed the puck and it went in off her blade into the net. “Kambelle probably makes that save nine out of 10 times,” said coach Olson, “you can’t fault her, because she is our stud, she is one of the best goaltenders and we wouldn’t be where we are without her.” There was no scoring the rest of the period despite both teams each having a power play with Warroad putting a lot more shots on goal during theirs than Crookston did on their man advantage. Freije made a point blank save on Sandy directly in front of the goal and a couple others. Crookston only had four shots in the period, but two were excellent stops by Payton Rolli, the Warriors netminder. “I thought we played another good period, but we kept emphasizing to the girls to get more shots on goal and get some rebounds and create some more chances,” said Olson.

THIRD PERIOD
It was a interesting final period! It started a minute into the period when Crookston put a full court press on Warroad in front of the Warriors net. Emma LaPlante, Ava Martin and others were jamming at the puck as Rolli was down for Warroad. The officials blew the whistle and said that a Warroad playing put her hand on the puck in the crease, which is a violation, and an automatic penalty shot for Crookston. The Pirates picked LaPlante to take the penalty shot, “Emma has been good in shoot outs in practice, so we selected her,” said Olson, “it has to be a player that is on the ice at the time of the penalty.” LaPlante went into the Warroad zone leisurely and was about at the hash marks in the slot and let go a shot that Rolli made the save on to keep the score 1-1. “You probably seen me jumping up and down on the bench, but that was because I wanted us to score when we put so much pressure in their crease and didn’t score,” said Olson. About three minutes later, Crookston took a too many men on the ice penalty, their fourth of the season and Warroad struck with a rebound in front of the goal when Karlee Kalbrener knocked it in past Freije to make it 2-1 Warroad with about 11 minutes to go in the game. “Our defensemen said the puck went in after the officials blew the whistle, but it counted and we were down for the first time in the game,” said Olson. Crookston would have a power play about a minute later and put some pressure on, but Rolli was tough when she needed to be. Crookston used their time out with three minutes to go in the game to give their top line a breather for the final minutes.” Yeah, we set up some plays for them to run to try to tie the game up,” said Olson. Crookston would pull Freije with one minute to go in the game and with an extra attacker, but Warroad got the puck in the Crookston zone and got the puck toward the unattended Pirate goal and Emmie Hardwick punched it in for Warroad to salt it away in a 3-1 win over Crookston. “I’m real proud of the way our girl’s played tonight,” said Olson, “the girls were up for this and played that way all night. I told Coach Marvin after the game that we’ll see them again later this year!” If that meeting happens it will be in the Section 8A Tournament!

Crookston is now 10-5-1 on the year and after a three-game week this week they will have a four-game week next week. They will host East Grand Forks for a third time in the season series between the Section 8A teams on Monday in Crookston, Tuesday #10 ranked Class AA Roseau will be at the Crookston Sports Center and next weekend, Friday, January 17 Crookston will be at #3 Class AA ranked Centennial, who was number one last week but lost to Holy Angels Academy this week. Then Saturday, January 18 Crookston will be at #15 Class AA Champlin Park!!! “I like our schedule playing these tough teams,” said Olson, “it will help us get better when tournaments come around.”
Warroad improves to 13-3 on the year and they will host Fergus Falls on Saturday.
JV – Warroad won 6-1