Pirate Boys Hockey defeats St. Paul Johnson, retains hold of the Lions Cup

The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team led wire to wire and never let off the gas as they took it to the Governors of St. Paul Johnson, defeating them 7-1 at Phalen Arena, retaining the Lions Cup for a third year.

FIRST PERIOD
Pirate Head Coach Josh Hardy emphasized pregame that a hot start was important to success, and the Pirates did that throughout the first period, winning the vast majority of faceoffs and peppering Tyler Mishica in net for the Governors. Eventually, at 7:29, the top line continued its scoring prowess, as Garrett Fischer blew one by Mishica after a great pass by Jay Reese, putting the Pirates up 1-0. The Pirate defense was fantastic throughout the game, although Hardy disagreed at points. “It’s obviously fun to get a lot of goals and get a win, but I thought we were a little sloppy at times,” says Hardy. The offense was not sloppy at 13:02. however, as more great passing from the Pirate top line allowed Greyson Ecker to cash in, making the score 2-0 Pirates. It looked like everything was smooth sailing heading into the intermission, but a Pirate penalty at the end of the period meant that SPJ was starting the second period on the power play.

SECOND PERIOD
St. Paul Johnson (SPJ) head coach Moose Younghans must have said something in the locker room that gave the Governors a little extra fire, because they came out of the gates in the second period hyperaggressive, sending pucks down at Kelly with reckless abandon. Though they could not convert on the power play, Jozef Cunningham was able to score a few seconds later, cutting the lead to 2-1. However, immediately afterwards, SPJ committed a penalty, and the much-lamented power play for the Pirates was able to pull through, as a Garrett Fischer goal made it 3-1. Then, two minutes after that, a turnover in front of the net allowed Evan Shockman to record his first varsity goal, making the score 4-1. Crookston would not back down, as the second line of Brandon Colborn and Michael Bochow set up Ryan Street for a goal to put Crookston up 5-1, a lead that they would keep for the remainder of the period.

THIRD PERIOD
The third period continued along with the same trends that the first two periods had set, with Crookston winning the vast majority of faceoffs, and being the more physical team, especially along the boards. A big contributor to this was Isaiah Donarski, who was called up from the JV squad to fill in the holes on defense that were created with multiple injuries. The other callup on the night was Cody Demarais, and at 8:12, his first and only shot attempt of the night beat Mishica, allowing Demarais to also score his first varsity goal. Coach Hardy in the postgame praised the two who played big minutes off of the JV team. “Great to see Cody get rewarded…he had family in attendance tonight which is exciting.” On Donarski, Hardy said, I thought he had a great game…you know, he shoots the puck so hard, between him and Tate Hamre I wouldn’t want to stand in front of either of them.” Connor Hanson would be the last Pirate to celebrate a scored goal, as he moved in unassisted with exactly 1 minute remaining in the period, putting the score at 7-1 Pirates, which would result in the final score.

Crookston improves to 5-1-1 on the year and will travel to Fergus Falls on Saturday at 2 PM, a game that you can hear on KROX.
St. Paul Johnson falls to 2-3-1 on the season.

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Final
Crookston	2	3	2	7
St. Paul Johnson	0	1	0	1

1st Period
7:29 – CROX – Garrett Fischer (Jay Reese)
13:02 – CROX – Greyson Ecker (Jay Reese, Garrett Fischer)

2nd Period
2:09 – SPJ – Jozef Cunningham (Isaiah Henderson assist)
3:59 – CROX (PP) – Garrett Fischer unassisted
5:54 – CROX – Evan Shockman unassisted
11:49 – CROX – Ryan Street (Brandon Colborn, Michael Bochow)

3rd Period
8:12 – CROX – Cody Demarais (Teagan Lubinski)
16:00 – CROX – Connor Hanson unassisted