The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team scored the first goal of the game, but the Thief River Falls Prowlers came from behind to win the game 3-1 in a Section 8A game played at the Crookston Sports Center in Crookston.
Coming off their first win of the season Crookston looked poised to knock off the defending Section 8A champion Thief River Falls playing their most complete game of the season. The Pirates came out physical and took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Ben Andringa pushed a faceoff towards the goal line, Quinn Westlake nudged it back to Andringa for a backhander under the arm of Prowler goaltender with 1:08 to go in the period. “Ben made a nice play there, went forward with it,” said coach Josh Hardy. “Quinn got a piece of it and got it back to Ben, and he got it by the goalie.” The first period was evenly played, but the Pirates outshot Thief River Falls 7-6 in the period and Crookston had a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
The Pirates came out strong in the second period and held the Prowlers to just one shot on goal through the first 10 minutes of the second period. A defensive miscue cost the Pirates when Thief River Falls evened the score at 1-1. Gunnar Fellman fired a shot from the blue line on Noah Dragseth who made the save, the puck deflected up to Dragseth’s right and Daltyn Quam was able to bat it past Dragseth with 6:08 left in the period. “We were pleased with the effort and thought we were solid and had a lead going into the intermission,” said Hardy. “A really good start to the second they had a long stretch they couldn’t get a shot on net, but we had a little miscommunication that led to their first goal.” Just over two minutes later Kaden Bakken centered a pass from behind the Pirate goal to Hunter Larson who made it 2-1 with 4:22 to go. Thief River Falls took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
The lone goal in the third period belonged to the Prowlers Tucker Skime who created a turnover in the neutral zone and with one stride blew past the Pirate defense for a breakaway goal making it 3-1 with 8:10 to go. The Pirates pulled Dragseth with 1:45 to play but couldn’t maintain the offensive zone and were unable to score and Thief River Falls hung on for the 3-1 victory. “Top to bottom I thought we played very well and had every opportunity to win the game,” said Hardy. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net there and credit to Thief River Falls they played very well and [Noah] Rupprecht was solid for them in net all night long.”
Crookston drops to 1-7-1 on the year and will play Fargo North on Friday, December 28 at the Ralph Englestad Holiday Classic in Thief River Falls. Thief River Falls improves to 6-3-2 on the year and will host Eveleth-Gilbert on Friday, December 28.
Ben Andringa scores for the Pirates Noah Dragseth with a save
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Thief River Falls | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| CROOKSTON | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
.JPG)
Logan Wardner dumps the puck down ice
1st Period
1:08 – Crookston – Ben Andringa (Quinn Westlake)
2nd Period
6:28 – Thief River Falls – Daltyn Quam (Gunnar Fellman)
4:22 – Thief River Falls – Hunter Larson (Daltyn Quam, Kaden Bakken)
3rd Period
8:10- Thief River Falls – Tucker Skime (Unassisted)
Sam Overgaard winds up for a shot
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Noah Dragseth – Crookston | 7 | 9 | 8 | 24 |
| Noah Rupprecht – TRF | 5 | 8 | 6 | 19 |
