PIRATE GIRLS HOCKEY BEATS DETROIT LAKES IN MAYVILLE, N.D.

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team put up the most shots on goal in one game this season when they had 71 shots on goal and picked up seven goals in the process with a 7-1 win over Detroit Lakes in a game played at the Kim Braaten Memorial Arena in Mayville, N.D.  Mayville’s Parker Strand, who scored, and Hatton’s Brynley Coleman, both are part of the Crookston cooperative between the three schools and Sacred Heart.

FIRST PERIOD
It started quick for the Pirates with just over a minute into the game, Fee and Cassie Solheim played catch behind the Detroit Lakes goal, and Solheim fed a perfect pass in front to Taylor Field, who ripped it by the Lakers goalie freshman Talyn Anderson for an early 1-0 lead. “We know we have to go in front of that net,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “when we work below that goal line, we must keep our heads up for that open player. We have defensemen flying into the open slot and our forwards standing there too.” Crookston’s offense was their best defense, as they wouldn’t allow Detroit Lakes out of their zone as the Pirates kept the pressure on the entire period. Near the halfway mark of the first period, Crookston would score again, and it was almost a carbon copy of the first goal. Emma LaPlante was working hard in the Lakers zone, and from behind and to the side of the goal, LaPlante spotted Kaylie Clauson in front, hit her with a pass, and Clauson buried a shot past Anderson to make it 2-0. “Kaylie put everything on that shot,” said Meyer, “she had a lot of time and space and fired it. It was good to see Kaylie score because she worked hard tonight and was rewarded.”  Crookston would outshoot Detroit Lakes 19-0 in the first period and a 2-0 lead. “It was a great period with a lot of positives and not a lot of bad,” said Meyer, “we contained them, didn’t let them get a single shot on goal in the period. We kept the pressure on, getting traffic in front and scoring twice. We worked a lot on the perimeter, doing a good job of moving it down low and on the sidewall, and we had to make sure we were attacking the seam. When we work those gritty areas, which is what we wanted to see.”

SECOND PERIOD
Fee scored her first goal in the second period on a rebound. “I was following Cassie, and she shot, and their goalie made the save, but I was right there, and I managed to get the puck and knock it in,” said Fee. A couple of minutes later, the Pirates eighth grader, Jocelyen Field, was weaving through the Lakers end twice and, on the second approach, was able to walk in front of the Detroit Lakes goal and sniped a shot past Anderson to make it 4-0 with just over seven minutes left in the period. “We did a lot of good work in and around their net,” said Meyer, “Jocelyen’s goal was good movement on her part, and let off a nice close-in shot that their goalie didn’t have much of a chance at.” Detroit Lakes would only have five shots on goal in the second half, but they did score late when they were on the power play. One of their leading scorers, Kaydence Thorsteinson, would get a loose puck in the neutral zone, push her way into the Crookston zone, and wristed one that beat Pirate goalie Kamebelle Freije past her left side and off the post and in to make it 4-1. After the period, Crookston outshot Detroit Lakes 43-5. Crookston’s Solheim won about 75% of her faceoffs in the game, resulting in some of the goals.
”Cassie is so loose with everything. She’s so chill about being on the ice,” said Meyer, “which is how she is all the time. She was so loose on those faceoffs, which we need to work on, and we had a chance here tonight. We rolled all three lines and four defensemen through the period with the defensemen pinching in low and the forwards down there too, so it’s things that we’ve worked on, and it was good to see them capitalize on it.”

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston would score another early goal in the third period when Fee scored her second goal on a shot from near the circle to the left of their goalie, hitting the crossbar and down to make it 5-1 just over four minutes into the final period. “In warmups tonight, I was in a groove shooting and hitting a lot of bar downs, and it continued in the game,” said Fee. The home crowd was waiting for something to happen with either Strand or Coleman and with five and a half minutes left in the period, they got their wish. Crookston senior captain Reese Swanson was in the Laker’s zone and whistled a shot that Laker goalie Anderson made an excellent save on, but the rebound came right to a streaking Strand. The Mayville lass popped it in front of the cheering homefolk to give Crookston a 6-1 lead. “It was nice to see Parker get that goal in her ‘home arena,’” said Meyer, “All the dedication of her and Brynley, all the driving back and forth between Crookston and Mayville and Hatton. We couldn’t be prouder of them for what they’ve meant to this team and will continue to do.”  Fee would get her third goal of the game with 22 seconds left when she put a wrist shot from about 12 feet out to make it a 7-1 final. “It was good for the team to score the seven goals tonight,” said Fee, “this hopefully will give us some momentum and get us rolling as far as scoring goals. I thought we started to connect on our passing in the third period, taking shorter shifts and letting the game be faster.”

Crookston improves to 15-8-1 on the season and will wrap up their regular season on Thursday when they host Thief River Falls, a team they’ve already played twice, winning 3-0 in Thief River Falls and 7-2 in Crookston a couple of weeks ago. The game on Thursday was added late in the season as both teams had a game canceled one weekend when Dodge County couldn’t make it up north, so both Thief River Falls and Crookston asked about playing each other to get their quota of 25 games for the season! It will also be Senior Night on Thursday, with the Pirates honoring Brynley Coleman, Natalie Narvaez, Morgan Nelson, Cassie Solheim, Reese Swanson, Brekken Tull, and Manager Coral Brekken! “It will be a great night honoring those girls,” said Meyer, “what they’ve done for this program. We hope they’ll be inspired to go out there and continue playing like we did tonight.”
Detroit Lakes drops to 7-10-2 on the season, will host East Grand Forks on Thursday, and finish off their regular season on Friday at home with Pine City.
JV – Crookston won 5-3

	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Detroit Lakes	0	1	0	1
Crookston	2	2	3	7

 

1st Period
1:19 – Crookston – Taylor Field (6) (Cassie Solheim, Addie Fee)
7:23 – Crookston – Kaylie Clauson (5)  (Emma LaPlante)

2nd Period
7:49 – Crookston – Addie Fee (10) (Cassie Solheim, Brekken Tull)
9:43 – Crookston – Jocelyen Field (4) (Taylor Field, Ashlyn Bailey)
14:06 – DL –  Kaydence Thorsteinson  unassisted  (PP)

3rd Period
4:21 – Crookston – Addie Fee (11)  (Cassie Solheim, Morgan Nelson)
11:34 – Crookston – Parker Strand (3)  (Reese Swanson)
16:38 – Crookston – Addie Fee (12)  (Brekken Tull, Adley Vigness)