PIRATE GIRLS HOCKEY LOSES TO JAMESTOWN IN OVERTIME

The Crookston Pirates led for more than half of Friday’s nights game at the Crookston Sports Center, but Jamestown battled back before Abby Soulis found a loose puck during the power play in front of the Pirate net and chipped it in to lift Jamestown to a 2-1 victory.  “We couldn’t get the offense going, had a bunch of shots that missed the net,” said Pirate coach Tim Moe.  “It’s disappointing of course, but we’re trying to look at the positives, and I think there are some positives to take out of this.”

First period –
Like the first matchup of the season between Jamestown and Crookston, a 2-2 tie, the teams skated evenly from the onset.  Both teams put five shots on goal in the first period, with the difference being an ill-timed pass that gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead.  Ella Roaldson was skating back towards her own goal with Dillynn Wallace on heels when she tried to throw a backhand pass across the slot.  Samantha Sanders jumped the pass and ripped a shot past the Bluejays netminder for an unassisted goal to give Crookston a 1-0 lead with 10:36 to go in the first. “I didn’t see it, but I asked Samantha, and she saw Wallace on the forecheck and thought there was only one place she could go with that puck so she went there and it was put right on her stick,” said Moe.  “We’ve been talking all year about anticipating things and starting to see the play.”

Second period-
In the second period, the Pirates were plagued by penalties taking three penalties over the final eight minutes of the frame.  The Pirates killed off a 12-second five-on-three as part of consecutive checking minors to Kendall Bergquist and Jenna Seaver with 7:53 and 6:04 to go in the period respectively.  Jamestown used the penalties to control the play and heavily outshoot the Pirates, but it looked like Crookston would escape unscathed before a bench minor for too many skaters with 1:37 to go gave Jamestown their third power play of the period.  Jamestown would capitalize 44 seconds later when Roaldson fed a pass from the right half-boards to the Megan Albrecht at the blue line who fired a bouncing puck down the slot past Grace Koshney to tie the game with 53 seconds to go in the second.  Jamestown outshot the Pirates 9 to 2 during the period.  “When we’re on the penalty kill, we’re wasting energy with longer changes, getting stuck on the ice and wearing ourselves out a little bit,” said Moe.  “Penalties cause problems, the third penalty we took was a direct result of us being on the penalty kill to long and trying to mix and match and we missed the message. We’ll have to watch the tape and get a better understanding of what happened there.”

Third period-
In the third period, the two teams played evenly for most of the period as they had throughout most of the night.  The Pirates had an early power play but could only muster one shot on goal.  However, over the final five minutes, the Pirates ramped up the pressure with Taylor Garrett running the point.  Taylor would get two shots on goal and had three other shots or passes redirected by teammates on goal, but Crookston was unable to get one past the Jamestown goaltender Jada Nelson, an eighth-grader playing the first significant varsity minutes of her career. Crookston finished the period with six shots over the final six minutes, outshooting Jamestown 7 to 2. “I give a lot of credit to their goaltender playing her first extensive varsity minutes with their other goaltender at a wedding today, we need to get more shots, but she was fantastic,” said Moe. “Taylor [Garrett] took probably three years off and came back as a sophomore last year.  She was anticipating things a little better than she had in the past and had a couple of shots there.  She’s a fantastic kid, great in the locker room and a great kid overall.”

Overtime-
The teams continued their even play throughout the first several minutes of overtime before Nora Peterson was whistled for a minor penalty for checking with 4:29 to play.  Jamestown used the power play to keep the puck in the offensive zone before Megan Albrecht lifted a shot from the blue line that was blocked.  Both teams had opportunities to, either clear the puck or push it towards the net, but the puck seemed to hop repeatedly off multiple sticks from both teams before bouncing into the crease where Soulis chipped it over the outstretched stick of Koshney to give Jamestown a 2-1 win on their second power play goal of the night.  “We talk all the time about not being able to take penalties, we’re not good enough to take penalties and survive that,” said Moe.  “Three of our penalties were checking penalties, and we’ve got to be under control, we talk all the time about taking angles with nobody checking in girl’s hockey, and we weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Crookston falls to 2-10-1 and will be off until Thursday, January 3 when they travel to Devils Lake, N.D. for a 7:00 p.m. game.  The Pirates will attempt to reschedule the postponed second game of the Crookston Invitational with Grand Forks for later in the season.   

1st Period
10:36 – Crookston – Samantha Sanders (unassisted)

2nd Period
:53 – Jamestown – Megan Albrecht (Maddy Kamstra Ella Roaldson)

3rd Period
No scoring

Over Time
2:51 – Jamestown – Abby Soulis (unassisted)