The Crookston Pirates leading scorer, freshman Jocelyn Field, added her to scoring prowess with four goals to lift the Crookston Pirates to a 5-2 win at Fergus Falls. Crookston led 2-0 after two periods and like last night against East Grand Forks, Fergus Falls scored a power play to cut the Pirate lead in half at 2-1 with 8:06 to go in the game. The Pirates kept adding goals and held off the Otters with three goals in the last seven and a half minutes to win 5-2 for the seventh win in a row!
FIRST PERIOD
The Crookston Pirates seem to have developed a pattern during their seven-game winning streak. Score in the first period, not give up any first period goals and then hold on at the end for a victory. That pattern was evident tonight in Fergus Falls as Jocelyn Field scored a lone goal in the first period with five minutes to go as she knocked down a Fergus Falls pass at center ice and jumped on the puck and was coming in alone on a breakaway on Mia Olson, the sophomore goalie for the Otters. “Someone blocked the shot, and I picked up the puck and had a breakaway and I said to myself, I can’t miss this shot, but don’t over think it and I was able to get it by the goalie,” said Field. Crookston had trouble getting set up in the offensive zone. “Yeah, Fergus Falls did a good job when they set up in our zone, making some passes and getting shots on but Kamebelle was strong again,” said Crookston head coach Reed Olson. “Jocelyn has been working on her shot at home and also in practice and we know that when she scores, she will usually get some more.”
SECOND PERIOD
If you liked the first period, you’re probably a Pirate fan, and you’ll also like the second period. Crookston did take the first penalty of the game 53 seconds into the period but were able to kill it off shorthanded. Play also appeared to favor the Otters who were good at dumping and chasing, but they were unable to get anything by the Pirate goalie, Freije. “I thought Fergus Falls controlled the game a little bit,” said coach Olson, “I like the fight from out girls, as we were playing a good team.” The Otters were physical throughout the game and numerous times the Pirates were drilled with no calls for checking or interference and called the obvious tripping calls. Crookston managed to take a 2-0 late in the period when Addie Fee slid a puck to the streaking Field and she beat the defenseman and went in all alone again and went top shelf, bar down to her second goal of the game, “I kept getting great passes throughout the game,” said Field, “Addie gave me an unbelievable pass and I’d feel bad if I didn’t score getting those kind of passes, so I was glad to bury it.” Talking about the physical play of the game, Field said, “You’re told to take the body and here I am at 5’2 and I’m supposed to take the body, and I get laid and no call. We said OK we can play that game. Believe it or not, I like to play physical, it’s like my favorite part of the game, makes me so dialed into the game, I just love it.” The Pirates were fortunate to get out of the period with a 2-0 lead after being outshot 10-5 in the period, but they have “the Stud back there,” said coach Olson.
THIRD PERIOD
This game had the markings of last night’s game with East Grand Forks. Leading 2-0 after a period and then Fergus Falls had a power play opportunity and Maddie Brimhall tipped a shot from the point by Maggie Greenagel to make it a 2-1 game with Crookston in front. Last night with a 2-0 lead EGF scored on a power play to make it 2-1! Then came probably the most important goal of the game when 28 seconds later, Crookston freshman defenseman, Adley Vigness, took the puck behind her net and was sling shotted out to center ice and exploded some more in the Fergus Falls zone, walked around the defenseman and she was all alone on the goalie and scored her first goal of the year and put Crookston up 3-1 and took some of that momentum away from the Otters. “That was a beautiful goal by Viggie,” said coach Olson, “her speed is unmatched as she was the fastest girl out here on the ice. Just the start to finish on the play was perfect. That could be an ESPN top goal. It was a great play and good for her to finish it.” Fergus Falls wasn’t done though. Ashlyn Wohlers, a junior transfer from Wahpeton-Breckenridge, scored going top shelf on Freije to cut the lead to 3-2 for the Pirates. “If Kamebelle sees the puck, she will stop the puck,” said Olson, “she didn’t see that one as it was a nice shot by the Fergus girl.” So, it’s close again, and the Otters can smell a comeback, but Field had other ideas as she scored a power play goal as she was coming in on the right side of the goalie, Olson, Field snapped off a great shot the went top shelf over the goalies glove and gave Crookston a 4-2 lead with three minutes to go and Field ended it with one second to go in the game, she grabbed a puck outside the blue line and put it in the middle for an open net goal as Fergus Falls pulled their goalie. “I didn’t know they pulled their goalie,” said Field and when I got the puck, I looked and saw the open net and was able to put it in.” Field’s first four goal game as a Pirate and they hope for many more. “We played well at times and not so good at others,” said Coach Olson, “we didn’t do a very good job of covering their players in front of our net, finding that person. We are going to have to watch that on film and go over in practice because that should never happen where a person is wide open in front of our net and getting a shot off.”
With their seventh win in a row, Crookston is now 7-1 on the season and will have a challenging weekend in the Twin Cities area. On Friday night they take on the #2 ranked Class A team in the State, Holy Angels Academy and Saturday afternoon they play at Prior Lake. ” We look forward to the games coming up, who wouldn’t be,” said Olson, “We are flying under the radar even with the 7-1 record, but we want to toughen up against teams like that and learn more about ourselves.”
Fergus Falls is now 7-4 on the season and will play at Detroit Lakes on Thursday.
JV – Fergus Falls won 9-0
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Crookston | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Fergus Falls | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
1st Period
11:51 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (6) unassisted
2nd Period
14:14 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (7) (Addison Fee)
3rd Period
8:54 – Fergus Falls – Maddie Brimhall (Rachel Debrito, Maggie Greenagel) (PP)
9:22 – Crookston – Adley Vigness (1) unassisted
11:16 – Fergus Falls – Ashlyn Wohlers (Maddie Brimhall)
14:02 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (8) unassisted (PP)
16:59 – Crookston – Jocelyn Field (9) (Ashlyn Bailey, Addison Fee)
| Goalie | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Mia Olson – FF | 7 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
| Kamebelle Freije-Crox | 11 | 10 | 9 | 30 |
