CROOKSTON PIRATE GIRL’S HOCKEY SHUT OUT BY PRIOR LAKE

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team was looking forward to the start of this season with five returning seniors and their top nine scorers back as well. The visiting Prior Lake Lakers lost their top five scorers from last year’s 14-12-1 season but found a bunch of youngsters as two eighth graders scored two goals each, and a freshman added another goal to lead the Lakers to a 5-0 win over the Pirates in the season opener at the Crookston Sports Center.

FIRST PERIODS
The teams started the first period in a feeling-out period, as few shots were on goal. The Pirates were fortunate to begin with a power play seven seconds into the game but could not get anything past the Laker’s senior goalie, Olivia Hansen. “We thought with the early penalty we would be able to get some momentum,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer. “But they kept us away from in front of the net, and we were unable to get some rhythm going.”
Crookston took a couple of penalties held Prior Lakes at bay and killed both off. The Lakers scored nine minutes into the period when Ciera Olinger, from behind the net, worked hard and got a pass to the right side of Crookston goalie Kambelle Freije and put a shot off Freije into the net to give Prior Lake the first goal and a 1-0 lead. “When we start running and we start wearing ourselves down,” said Meyer. “They gave a lot of time and space in the first period, just moving the puck, and that’s when we started gripping our sticks a little tighter and start running around and just doing it to ourselves, which is something we have to work on.”

SECOND PERIOD
There wasn’t much different in the second period, although Emma LaPlante rang a shot off the pipe that would have tied the game up. The Prior Lake forecheck threw the Pirates off, and they needed help getting the puck out of their zone. “They made it hard for us, clogging up the passing lanes, and they always had two forecheckers on us, and we didn’t respond,” said Meyer. Prior Lake scored the lone goal of the period when eighth grader Bella Sterns received a nice pass from another eighth grader, Raya Mathiason, and snuck it in to make it 2-0 with just over a minute to go in the period. “We started getting tired in the second period,” said Meyer. “It’s conditioning, something we have to work on.” LaPlante hit two posts in the game and Cassie Solheim another as the Pirates outshot the Lakers 9-4 in the period. “We had some chances with hitting the pipes, but we have to get traffic in front of the net because their goalie is too good to leave for open shots,” said Meyer.
On the other end, Prior Lakes has some big players, even though they are young, and they were using that to create problems for Freije in front of Crookston’s net. Prior, Lake had only two seniors in the lineup, including the veteran goalie, Hansen.

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston started the third period with 1:29 left on a power play, but the Pirate power play did not produce anything.
The Prior Lake eighth graders took over the game and the period, scoring three goals. Sterns got her second on a rebound in front, and then Mathiason scored twice in 23 seconds with just under seven minutes to go in the game to seal things up in a 5-0 lead and win. “We were definitely out of sync tonight,” said coach Meyer. “We had five of our top girls that just got done with the State Tennis Tournament. Brynley Coleman had a few practices after her volleyball season ended for Hatton, N.D. Ashlyn Bailey was also hurt in the third period, and it appeared a girl fell on her back and tightened up her lower back. She is OK and wanted to go back in, but we held out for the rest of the game.”

The Pirates drop to 0-1 on the year and will hit the road on Friday as they travel to Thief River Falls for a big Section 8A matchup. “We scrimmaged them last week, and we had a good, hard-fought scrimmage,” said Meyer, “their goalie is a big girl and looks good in goal, so we will have to be ready to get ready for another big Section 8A game. I know these girls will be ready to come back after tonight.”

JV – Prior Lake won 3-0

1st Period
9:04 – Prior Lake- Jonnie Anderson  (Ciera Olinger)

2nd Period
14:56 – Prior Lake – Bella Sterns  (Raya Mathiason)

3rd Period
5:41 – Prior Lake – Bella Sterns  (Addi Heinicke, Ava Anderson)
9:50 – Prior Lake – Raya Mathiason  (Kallie Disrud, Addi Heinicke)
10:13 – Prior Lake – Raya Mathiason  (Bella Sterns)

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