Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey scores 8 goals to beat International Falls

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team scored six goals in nine minutes of the third period to blow open their game with International Falls in an 8-0 win at the Crookston Sports Center. Crookston led 2-0 after the first period but were scoreless for the next 23 minutes. After the coaches talked about playing more unselfishly in the third period..Crookston outshot the Broncos 56-8 in the game and the senior goalie registered her second shutout of the season, breaking that Crookston school record of 14 shutouts in her career!

First Period
Crookston started quickly, as they have in their last few games with domination in the offensive zone, but were having trouble again putting the puck away. The Pirates did get on the board about halfway through the period when senior captain Addie Fee put away a rebound to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “I was just behind Jocelyn in front of the net, and the rebound came right to me, and I put it on the ice and scored,” said Fee. International Falls first penalty of the period cost them when Crookston scored on a beautiful tic-tac-toe kind of play. It started with Emma LaPlante playing the puck behind the Bronco’s net and making a pass to Fee and, in turn, fed Field, who buried it to score with the man advantage to give Crookston a 2-0 lead with just over two minutes to go in the period. Domination by Crookston as they held the Broncos without a shot on goal for 15 minutes of the period, and it ended up with one shot, and Crookston had a 2-0 lead. “It was a good period as far as getting a couple of goals, but with that number of shots, we should have had more,” said Reed Olson, head coach for the Pirates.

Second Period
Penalties dominated the second period, which threw everything off track. Both teams had four-on-four and five-on-fours, but nobody could score. Crookston had several great chances by a handful of players throwing 14 shots on goal, but Mara Pelland, the senior goaltender for International Falls, was stellar, grabbing shots with a good glove and quick on her feet. “Their goalie played well,” said Olson, “in some instances, we made her look good, but she is a veteran who has seen a lot of shots over the years.” The Broncos did get four shots on the Pirates goalie, Kamebelle Freije, but nothing in the challenging variety. International Falls had to feel pretty good going in the second break. Crookston did not, as their outstanding freshman defenseman, Adley Vigness, was working the puck at the International Falls blue line, and she backed into the Broncos zone and was hit and went down and couldn’t get up as one of her ankles suffered an injury that took her out of the game.

Third Period
“I thought we played individually in the first two periods,” said Coach Olson, “we talked to the girls between periods about that; needed to pass more and set up your teammates if there is that opportunity.” The Pirates took what the coach said to heart and were all over the place, starting at the 4:09 mark when Fee stole a puck in the Bronco’s end and made a nice move to the high slot and put another top shelf shot that beat Pelland for Fee’s second goal of the game and her fifth of the season. 18 seconds later, LaPlante scored by working into the middle slot and putting herself in position on the forehand to snap a shot past Pelland, and Crookston led 4-0. With Vigness down with the injury, Crookston freshman Rilynn Aubol was seeing more playing time in the third period, and she became a major factor in the Pirate’s scoring spree. She scored a goal from a shot from the blue line that evaded Pelland for Aubol’s first career goal. “I was inside their blue line, and Emma (LaPlante) gave me a beautiful pass, and I shot and watched it all the way, and it got past their goalie. Yeah, it was great. Adley is a great player, and I’m sorry she was injured as she is a big part of this team, and we need her back, but I was happy scoring that first goal.” Aubol helped set up the next goal with a defensive partner pass to Kaylie Clauson, whose shot was as low as the coaches wanted and scored her first goal of the season, and Crookston was leading 6-0. “We have some girls that like to go top shelf, but we’ve told the team we like the low shot from about the top of the goalie pad and down,” said Coach Olson. Crookston’s Parker Strand, a senior from Mayville, N.D., has had a number of great games and terrific scoring chances that wouldn’t go in, but she got a rebound and a quick shot, scored to give Crookston a 7-0 lead. Exactly one minute later, last night’s hero, defenseman Ashlyn Bailey, was able to get in close and scored her third of the young season, and it gave Crookston the 8-0 lead with just under four minutes to go. “We really turned it up in the third period,” said Coach Olson, “the girls played some outstanding hockey, some for goals, making some great shots with a purpose in mind. I’m excited to see if we will continue the unselfish play going forward. It was a fun game.”

Crookston won their fourth game in a row and they are 4-1 on the year, with Freije recording her second shutout of the year and 14th of her career to take the lead from all-time shutouts for girls hockey in Crookston. “Hey, I’m glad Kamebelle did it,” said Amy (Burke) Erdman, who was at the Crookston Sports Center to see Freije break the record as she previously held the record. Who knows, our little girl could be a goaltender and come along and break the record.” Crookston has one game next week when they will play a Section 8A opponent, Detroit Lakes, and the game will be played in Mayville, N.D. in honor of Crookston senior Parker Strand and eighth grader Hadley Verwest, who are from Mayville and part of the cooperative Crookston has with Mayville and Sacred Heart. The game will be at 5:00 PM, and the varsity follows about 7:00 PM. International Falls drops to 1-6-1 on the year, losing two Section 8A games this weekend, and they will host Rock Ridge on Tuesday.

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
International Falls	0	0	0	0
Crookston	2	0	6	8

1st Period
8:43 – Crookston – Addie Fee (4) (Jocelyn Field)
14;54 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (3) (Addie Fee, Emma LaPlante) (PP)

2nd Period
No Scoring

3rd Period
4:09 – Crookston – Addie Fee (5) unassisted
4:27 – Crookston – Emma LaPlante (2) (Rilynn Aubol)
7:27 – Crookston – Rilynn Aubol (1) (Emma LaPlante)
10:52 – Crookston – Kaylie Clauson (1) (Rilynn Aubol, Jocelyn Field)
12:10 – Crookston – Parker Strand (1) (Jocelyn Field, Logan Brekken)
13:05 – Crookston – Ashlyn Bailey (3) (Ava Martin, Parker Strand)