The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team used an Aleah Bienek hat trick, and first varsity goals by Nora Peterson and Jenna Seaver to pick up their first win of the season with an impressive 8-1 victory over the Park Rapids Panthers in a Section 8A matchup played at the Ralph Englestad Arena in Thief River Falls. The eight goals were the most the Pirates had scored since they scored nine in a 9-0 victory over Jamestown on December 29, 2014.
Crookston didn’t waste any time as Catherine Tiedemann scored 66 seconds into the game when the puck was loose in front of the net and she slapped it by the Panther goalie to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. “You need a kid like Catherine to step up in a game like this,” said Pirate Coach Tim Moe. The Pirates added another goal over four minutes later when Aleah Bienek was able to score in a scrum in front of the net for a 2-0 lead. “It was in front of the net and we had two tries at it and on the third try I got it and it went in,” said Bienek. Halfway through the first period, Park Rapids scored a goal on a nice move by Alexa Kennedy and the Pirate lead was cut in half at 2-1. The Pirates ended the period strong when Bienek scored her second goal of the game with 2:16 left in the period. “It was up top by the hash marks and Maddie (Salentine) got it and there was a rebound and I did a whip around and got it in the net,” said Bienek. 11 seconds later, MacKenze Epema scored a goal from inside the blue line and snuck it over the shoulder of the Panther goalie to give the Pirates a 4-1 lead, which they took into the first intermission. “I don’t think the first period was our best period tonight,” said Coach Moe. “Park Rapids started the game with their backup goalie in the lineup and we were able to take advantage of it, but I don’t think we played our best hockey of the night in the period.”
Park Rapids used a different goalie, their usual starting goalie, to start the second period and that proved to be a wise move as the Pirates peppered the Panther goalie with shot after shot. Crookston wasn’t able to solve the new goalie until Catherine Tiedemann scored her second goal of the game with 2:42 left in the period. Catherine had a one-on-one with a Panther defenseman and as Catherine was gaining steam the defenseman tried to spin around to start skating backward and Tiedemann blew by her for a breakaway. Tiedemann made a quick move and rifled the left-handed wrist shot into the back of the net to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead. “Catherine made a nice move to get all alone and had a nice shot past a really good goaltender,” said Coach Moe. “A nice play in a situation where we needed something. We played so well in the second period so it was nice to have a goal to show for it.”
In the third period, it took a while for Crookston to find the back of the net and that changed a little over halfway through the period when Nora Peterson scored on a nice shot for a 6-1 lead with 6:32 left in the game. “Nora is going to be a great player for us,” said Coach Moe. “It was nice shot from the slot area and she will score a lot of goals for us over the next couple of years.” Two minutes later, Bienek added her third goal of the game for a hat trick and a 7-1 lead. “Clara (Meyer) really helped me out and Maddie was great,” said Bienek. “I couldn’t do it without my teammates out there and we kept battling until it finally went in.”
The eighth Pirate goal of the game was scored by eighth-grader Jenna Seaver when she made a nice move to get past a Panther defenseman for a breakaway and her shot went top shelf for her first varsity goal in the third game of her career. “It felt really good,” said Seaver. “I was skating down the ice and tried to pass to Maddie (Salentine) and it wasn’t a good pass and came back to me and I skated in, shot and it went in. Once I got past her I kind of thought I was going to get it and knew had to go top shelf.” Crookston held on the rest of the way for an 8-1 victory to earn their first win of the young season. “We are getting better and I think we took another step today. We were able to put the puck in the net and we had a lot of different girls get points tonight against a pretty good goaltender,” said Coach Moe. “We have a long way to go, but it is nice for the girls to see the improvement on the scoreboard and to have so many girls get points was great to see.”
Crookston improves to 1-1-1 on the year and will take on West Fargo on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. You can hear the game on KROX at 11:30. Park Rapids drops to 0-4 on the year.
Jenna Seaver scores her first varsity goal in the third game of her career
| Scoring | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final |
| Park Rapids | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| CROOKSTON | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
Nora Peterson gets the puck past the goalie for her first Pirate goal
1st Period
15:54 – Crookston – Catherine Tiedemann (2) (Taylor Garrett, Breck Fugleberg)
11:43 – Crookston – Aleah Bienek (Rylee Solheim)
7:25 – Park Rapids – Alexa Kennedy (Savannah Anderson)
2:16 – Crookston – Aleah Bienek (2) (Rylee Solheim, Maddi Salentine)
2:05 – Crookston – MacKenze Epema (2) (Maddie Salentine)
2nd Period
2:42 – Crookston – Catherine Tiedemann (3) (Nora Peterson, Breck Fugleberg)
3rd Period
6:32 – Crookston – Nora Peterson (Catherine Tiedemann, Breck Fugleberg)
4:29 – Crookston – Aleah Bienek (3) (Clara Meyer, Maddi Salentine)
1:10 – Crookston – Jenna Seaver (unassisted) (PP)
Aleah Bienek (8) watches the puck go in the net on one of her 3 goals
| Saves | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total |
| Klohie Mankie – Park Rapids | 11 | – | – | 11 |
| Kylee Pachel – Park Rapids | – | 14 | 11 | 25 |
| Grace Koshney – Crookston | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| Kailee Magsam – Crookston | – | 5 | 2 | 7 |
