DELANO GOALIE KAYLA SIMONSON TOUGH IN GOAL, HANDS THE PIRATES A 3-1 LOSS

Looking at the statistics for the Delano/Rockford Tigers Girl’s hockey team that was 2-4-1 coming into their game with Crookston this afternoon, one particular stat that stood out was that of the Tigers Sophomore goalie Kayla Simonson! She had played in six of the Tigers seven games and a record of 1-4-1, but she had a goals against average of 2.73 and a save percentage of 91%. Those are remarkable for a team with only one win in her six starts and tells you she has kept them in games with chances to win! That proved true as the Tigers score one goal a period and defeated the visiting Crookston Pirates 3-1 at the Delano Area Ice Arena.

What kind of energy would both teams have p a NOON game after getting out of their arenas about 9:30 PM last night? Crookston looked flat for much of the game, although they had streaks of some offensive pop. Delano/Rockford scored first on a defensive partner pass from Ava Reierson to freshman Kali Schmidt who beat Pirate goalie Jacy Larson just over 10 and a half minutes into the game. Crookston retaliated three and a half minutes later on a power play with Brekken Tull and Addie Fee doing some board work down low and behind the Tigers goal, when they got it in front, and Pirate defenseman Morgan Nelson was down low and snapped a shot past Simonson and a 1-1 game which is how the period ended. “That was great for Morgan,” said Crookston coach Emily Meyer,” she is doing a lot of stepping up in the zone and playing more offense. That was good for her. I thought it would get us fired up to come out in the second period.”I thought we were very flat-footed, kind of played on our heels,” said coach Meyer, “we were waiting for them to do something and then try to match it.”

Crookston started the second period with two players sitting in the penalty box for 35 seconds to start and the other would be served for 50 seconds after the first penalty expired. Anyway, Delano put on some pressure but either had it deflected, knocked away by the Pirates. They got away with the two-man disadvantage but less than two minutes after that, Delano/Rockford scored with their leading scorer, Kaelyn Wittwer finding a rebound to the right of Larson for Wittwer’s fifth goal of the season and gave Delano/Rockford a 2-1 lead. This led to what could have been the best play of hockey from Crookston with multiple opportunities, Fee made a move on a Tiger defenseman and was in alone on Simonson but Fee’s shot missed the net. Reese Swanson had a lot of swirling in the Tiger’s end, a couple of times circling the entire half rink in Delano/Rockford zone ending with a slap shot that the goalie stopped and point blanker in front that was stuffed!! Most of these opportunities came because of Pirate center Brynley Coleman, who won almost every faceoff and not only won the draw, but they were clean to her defenseman to start an offensive play. Simonson was sharp and very active straying out a bit and handling pucks very efficient that started breakouts for the Tigers and allowed the Tigers to keep the 2-1 lead after two periods. “I thought our girls focused too much on that, her handling the puck the way she did with that goalie stick, ” said Meyer, “I told them to focus on things we can control and not worry about what that goalie was doing. She was good, had a good glove, and didn’t give up rebounds.”

The third period seemed like it was slow motion in a lot of ways for both teams, whether tiredness was setting in or what. “We wanted the girls to come out flying,” said Meyer, “We started pretty strong, but started getting sloppy. We had hoped to get one early and tie it, but that didn’t happen.” It was a period of gaining the offensive zone with some good movement of the puck, but no real grade-A chances. After having five penalties in the first period, there was not a penalty called in the second or third period. Crookston kept trying to get the tying goal but Simonson would have none of it and was always in the right spot with her nine saves in the third period. The clincher was scored by a freshman, Audrey McClurg scored with two minutes to go and salt it away for Delano/Rockford and they take the win at 3-1.  Crookston did outshoot the Tigers 35-28 in the game, but Simonson was equal to the task!! “We’ll get back and go over some things that this weekend showed us,” said Coach Meyer, “we’ll have everyone back on Monday and hopefully have a good practice and get ready for Warroad.”

With the win, Delano/Rockford improves to 3-4-1 on the year while the Pirates lost their second game in a row and are 4-2 on the year. Crookston comes back home on Tuesday when they play the #2 ranked team in Class A, the Warroad Warriors at the Crookston Sports Center at 7:00 PM. The game with be LIVE VIDEO STREAMED starting with the JV game on kroxam.com

1st Period
10:39 – Delano –  Kalie Schmidt  (Ava Reierson)
14:01 – Crookston –  Morgan Nelson (1)  (Brekken Tull, Addie Fee)   (PP)

2nd Period
3:16  –  Delano –  Kaelyn Wittwer (Kalie Schmidt, Audrey McClurg)

3rd Period
14:56 –  Delano –  Audrey McClurg unassisted