sports

PIRATE GIRLS HOCKEY DEFEATS TRF 4-0 ON SENIOR NIGHT

February 1, 2024

It was much of the same for the Crookston Pirate Girls’ Hockey team, scoring later in the game. This time, it was four times to defeat the visiting Thief River Falls Prowlers in a Section 8A game at the Crookston Sports Center. Pirate junior goaltender Kamebelle Freije recorded 13 saves for her sixth shutout of the season, and four different players scored for the Pirates to register their 16th win of the season in their final regular season game, which was also Senior Night.

FIRST PERIOD
During the season, Crookston has outscored their opponents 18-14 in the first period, 26-12 in the second, and 30-17 coming into tonight’s game, and that pattern continued as neither team scored in the first period, which was dominated by Crookston outshooting the Prowlers 15-3 in the period but couldn’t get anything past Thief River Falls freshman goalie, McKenna Carr. Crookston rang two shots off the pipes with eighth-grade defenseman Adley Vigness hitting the crossbar that didn’t go down and another that had beaten Carr but went wide. “That kid can get ahold of the puck on a one-timer,” said Crookston coach Emily Meyer, “we know one of these days those are going to go bar down instead of hitting the pipe and bouncing out. Thief River Falls took the only two penalties of the period, but Crookston could not score on the power plays but did make Carr work hard in the period. “I thought we controlled the period,” said Meyer, “there were a lot of things that we need to work on, like moving the puck; not being selfish was the key for this one. We must get into that groove of being more we, not just me when we play as a team. If we don’t do that for three periods, the Sections will be tough.”

SECOND PERIOD
The second period started with a bunch of penalties, the first two on Crookston, which they skated off, but with one person in the box, Thief River Falls took a double minor just about six minutes into the period. Crookston ended up with just over a three-minute power play, but they continued to struggle with the extra man advantage and didn’t take advantage of the extended power play. “I thought Thief River Falls did a good job of protecting their goalie,” said Meyer, “we just have to make her move or get traffic in front of her to find the back of the net.” With about five and a half minutes left in the period, Crookston struck with players in front of the Prowler net! One of the seven Pirate seniors, defenseman Morgan Nelson, put a nice low shot toward thels goal, and it Thief River Falwas tipped by Addie Fee but stopped by Carr, who had another senior, Cassie Solheim, in front and put the rebound in to make it 1-0 with Crookston on top. “We needed that one,” said Meyer, “that let us breathe a little bit. We were clutching the stick hard, and the girls wanted to get that first goal, and I’m glad it went our way. We need to put some traffic in front of the dirty areas and be ready to take some hits, but you’ll be rewarded, which Cassie was on that one.” Two and a half minutes later, Crookston struck again when Emma LaPlante, from the face-off to the right of the Prowler goal, won the faceoff directly to Parker Strand, who let a one-timer go that blew by Carr to make it 2-0. “That is how you draw it up,” said Meyer, “Emma can win faceoffs going forward or back, and she won that, and it was quite a shot by Parker, who now has a goal in our last two games, and it’s good to see her hard work paying off.”
Thief River Falls did have some opportunities in the period when they mustered the most shots in a period with six, but Freije was solid but the Prowlers did have a couple of chances in front that they couldn’t get their sticks on, and Crookston went into the second break with a 2-0 lead. “I thought Kamebelle made a couple of sweet saves,” said Meyer, “where we were holding our breath on. She did an excellent job stopping them and keeping them off the scoreboard as we killed those penalties.”

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston opened the third period with a penalty, and they eventually killed it off, but before they did, the Pirates Taylor Field scored the third shorthanded goal of the season for Crookston. She received a pass from Nelson and then ripped a shot by Carr to make it 3-0. “Taylor just used her speed, ripped a quick shot which was good to see Taylor go out there and work her butt off and go to the high slot and beat their goalie with a great shot, and it was exactly what we needed getting the shorty.” Later in the period, Crookston would add another specialty goal, this time a power play with the younger Field, Jocelyen scoring on a rebound from a Vigness shot with just over four minutes to make it 4-0. “We keep telling the girls that if they get in that ‘greasy’ area, taking some hits, they will be rewarded. It’s not everyone’s favorite place to be, but when you play tough in front, that is when you’re going to score those goals. We have to figure that out as Jocelyen did on her goal, ensuring we’re putting traffic in front, burying rebounds. Crookston did outshoot Thief River Falls 18-4 in the third period and 45-13 in the game. Crookston has outshot their last two opponents 116-18 in their previous two wins!

Crookston ranked #9 in the latest Minnesota Class A Polls, finished the regular season with a 16-8-1 record, and will be either the number one or number two seed, depending on who the other section coaches vote for, Crookston or Warroad. The Pirates will be off until Saturday, February 10, to play in the semi-finals, in all probability against East Grand Forks or Thief River Falls.

There will be two Section 8A quarterfinals on Thursday, February 8, at high seeds, and the semi-finals move to the Crookston Sports Center on February 10; the Section 8A Championship will be at the Crookston Sports Center on Thursday, February 15, at 7:00 PM with the winner advancing to the Minnesota State Class A Hockey Tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul the following week!!

Thief River Falls is now 7-15-1, and they have two games left of their regular season, Friday night at Cloquet and Saturday afternoon at #6 ranked Duluth Marshall.
JV- Thief River Falls won 4-2