Crookston Pirate Girls hockey holds off EGF for a 2-1 Section victory

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team built up a 2-0 lead after two periods and after a Blake Schultz power play goal with nine minutes to go, held on to defeat the Green Wave 2-1 in a Section 8A game at the Crookston Sports Center.

First Period
Crookston struck early in the game when junior Emma LaPlante continued her scoring prowess scoring her fourth goal in the last two games when she worked her way in close to get a forehand shot that was blocked by the East Grand Forks goaltender, Britlyn Rasmussen and went up and over the goalie and at first it was in the blue in the crease and the official emphatically waved it off, but the puck get rolling and then was ruled a goal and the Pirates led 1-0 just 2:12 into the game. “It was a good start for us and important to get that first goal,” said Crookston head coach Reed Olson. The rest of the period, both teams had opportunities but didn’t cash in. The Green Waves Sophia Lukach had an outstanding chance by carrying a puck into the Crookston zone, turned around a Pirate defenseman and was in alone and made a move that had Crookston goalie Kamebelle Freije took the fake and was down and left her left side wide open, but Lukach started losing control of the puck and instead of putting into the net, she hit the side of the Pirates net and kept the score at 1-0. “We seemed to let off the gas after we scored the first goal,” said Crookston coach Olson, “we’ve had a tendency to do that and we have to figure out that we can’t do that, we have to keep the foot on the gas.” Shots were fairly even in the period, which senior Britlyn Rasmussen recorded her 1,000th save of her career.

Second Period
Like the first period, Crookston struck early again, this time 49 seconds into the second period as the Pirates had an offensive flurry and when Rasmussen made a save and fell to the right of her goal. The Pirates Jocelyn Field had the puck, circle around the Green Wave net and took a quick peek and spotted Parker Strand in the slot area, hit her with a perfect pass and with the goalie still down, Strand lifted right into the open net to give Crookston a 2-0 lead less than a minute into the period. “It was a nice play,” said Olson, ” Jocelyn took a little peek as she was moving back toward their blue line and spotted Parker, and it was a perfect pass and perfect shot and gave us a big 2-0 lead.” Much like the first period, things didn’t go the way the two teams were hoping, but not from a lack of trying. The Pirates Emma LaPlante has numerous chances, but her magic touch evaded her. The Green Wave continued to get odd man rushes and either missed the net or were stopped by Freije. “We kept the message the same in the locker room during each break,” said Coach Olson, “get back to our offensive pressure, keep the pressure on them to build up a bigger lead. We also have to eliminate all the odd man rushes they were having.” The Pirates took the only two penalties in the period but skating them off and continued to not allow a power play goal thus far in the season!

Third Period
Both teams came out aggressively in the final period and chances were had by both teams and nothing came of it as both goalies were tough. East Grand Forks went on the power play six minutes into the period and had their top line on the ice, led by junior Blake Schultz the sixth leading scorer in the state of Minnesota. The Pirates did a nice job of keeping Schultz under wraps until now!! Schultz picked off a Pirate pass near center ice and the speedster was quick into the Crookston zone and was in alone on Frieje and snapped off a shot that beat the Pirate goalie to get within a 2-1 score with nine minutes left in the game. “She beat me bar down,” said Frieje about the goal, “she is a great player and a friend, who we handled for most the game.” Things were interesting the rest of the way, with East Grand Forks getting a number of those odd man rushes and sometimes all by themselves on Freije. “I’m not sure what really happened in that third period,” said Freije, “it was weird, but we were able to get the win, a good team win over another Section 8A team.”
It was time to watch the East Grand Forks net and see when they’d pull their goalie, but it never happened as with a 1:36 left in regulation, the Green Wave were assessed an interference call!! Short a player as the Pirates played out the rest of the game on a power play, East Grand Forks did not pull their goalie, but did have some chances in tight, but Crookston did a good job of clearing the puck and ended up hanging on to the 2-1 victory. “I thought we played well about half the game,” said Olson, “Any win is a good win, and we played well enough to win tonight. A great Section win which is great. It’s a short turn around for our next game, which is tomorrow night, but we’ll watch the film tonight and try to make some corrections in our play!”
Crookston’s sixth straight win improves their record to 6-1. The Pirates continue their busy week tomorrow night at Fergus Falls at 7:00 PM which will be on KROX RADIO starting at 6:30 PM. Crookston will wrap up the week with a trip to the Twin Cities area, taking on the #2 ranked Holy Angels Academy in Richfield and closing the weekend at Prior Lake. Both of those games will also be on KROX RADIO.

East Grand Forks playing their 16th game of the season, falls to 5-10-1 and will be at West Fargo for a pair of weekend games, Friday night playing Marshall, MN and West Fargo United on Saturday. Crookston and East Grand Forks play two more regular season games right after New Years. At East Grand Forks on Tuesday, January 7 and again in Crookston on Monday, January 13.
JV – East Grand Forks won 7-4