sports

REESE SWANSON SCORES TWICE TO LEAD THE PIRATES GIRL’S HOCKEY TO 4-0 WIN AT GENTRY ACADEMY

January 6, 2024

The Crookston Pirates senior Captain defenseman, Reese Swanson, was told this morning that she would be moving to a wing for tonight’s game, with Addie Fee moving to center and Taylor Field staying at the other wing. Swanson responded well by scoring two goals to lead the Pirates to a 4-0 win over the defending state champions, Gentry Academy, at the TCO Sports Garden in Vadnais Heights, a suburb of St. Paul.

FIRST PERIOD
Reese is very versatile for us,” said Crookston head coach Emily Meyer, “great skills of skating, moving the puck, and a force in front of the net.” Swanson didn’t take long to make a prophet of her coach when she scored just over a minute into the period with a backhand past the Stars goalie to make it 1-0. “I was going into their zone with Taylor,” said Swanson, “I gave her a pass, and then when I was in front, she returned the pass on my backhand. I let it go, and luckily, it went in.” Crookston hasn’t enjoyed many leads during the first period, so it was an excellent start to this game. “Yes, it was,” said Meyer, “It gave us a jump, and we were off and running.” At one point near the period’s halfway mark, the shots were even at six apiece. Crookston ran off the next seven shots and continued pressure on Haylee Proulx, the Stars goalie. “We started pushing them in their offensive zone,” said Meyer, “Everybody was applying the pressure, and we forced them into some penalties, which turned into a five-on-three power play for us toward the end of the period.” The goal came with 2.4 seconds left in the period as Emma LaPlante received a pass in front from Jocelyn Field and fired it past Proulx to make it a 2-0 lead for the Pirates just before the buzzer ended the period and a Crookston lead. “I liked how we responded to the loss at Northfield,” said Meyer, “the girls didn’t hang their heads today and came out and took care of business, playing pirate hockey.”

SECOND PERIOD
The second period was a workman-defensive period in which nobody would score, and both goalies made seven saves. Both teams needed help breaking out of their zone with aggressive forechecks and standing-up defensive play. The best chance in the period came when Jocelyn Field was just over the red line moving toward the Gentry zone and noticed her wing, Brynley Coleman, a senior for the Pirates from Hatton, N.D. , part of a cooperative, blazing in front of her, and Field made a saucer pass on the stick of Coleman, who was alone on the netminder and shot it right into Proulx with the save to keep it a 2-0. “That was a beautiful pass by Jocelyn, right on Brynley’s stick,” said Meyer, “it’s all hindsight, but if she had another chance at it, Brynley probably could have moved in and tried a deke on the goalie, but it was a great play by both players.” The play was a little choppy with the number of penalties in the period.

THIRD PERIOD
Crookston came out in the third period like the first, with Swanson scoring another early goal. This one came on a rebound. “I was in the offensive zone,” said Swanson, “Taylor passed it out, and Addie put a shot on their goalie, and the rebound was there, and I slammed it home,” said Swanson on her second goal of the game, giving Crookston a 3-0 lead. “We were playing Pirate hockey,” said Meyer, “we can skate with everybody we’ve played, and although we haven’t been scoring a lot this season, we can score at any time.” Frustration started getting to Gentry, and they took several penalties in the third period. Crookston kept the pressure on, and late in the period, Emma LaPlante. The only question now was whether Freije could get her fifth shutout of the season. “I can’t tell how much we appreciate having Kambelle behind us,” said Swanson, “it’s such a good feeling if we make a mistake or get beat that she is back there in goal. She is amazing, and I’m so glad she is playing goal for the Pirates,” Crookston rotated three defensemen through most of the game with some relief, with Swanson dropping back and Fee as well. Still, the bulk of defense was Ashlyn Bailey, Morgan Nelson, and Adley Vigness. “They played so well in the game,” said Meyer, “they were aggressive when it was all right to do so; they played conservatively when it was called for. They are quick, fast, and good athletes who showed up tonight.” Crookston would add another late goal when Vigness was pinching in from the blue line. She was in the slot and spotted by LaPlante, who put the puck on Vigness’s stick and scored her second varsity goal of the season. “Vigs is looking for that play during the season,” said Meyer, “she has good speed and was low when she received the pass from Emma, and it was nice to see her score.”
The only question remained whether Freije would get her fifth shutout of the season. The answer was yes, stopping 25 shots to earn the whitewash. “Kambelle’s amazing,” said Meyer, “I can’t believe some of the stops she made; she is playing at a high level right now.”

Before tonight’s game, the Crookston girls enjoyed attending the first professional women’s hockey league home game in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center. The Pirate girls were part of a record crowd of 13,316 fans for Team Minnesota. Team Minnesota defeated Team Montreal 3-0 as Grace Zumwinkel (Breck High School & the University of Minnesota) scored all three goals. Team Minnesota is 2-0 in the young inaugural season. “It was fun for our girls to see that there is a possible career after college if they desire,” said Meyer, “it was terrific hockey and a great time.” The Crookston girls were excited and enjoyed the experience. Addie Fee said, “We saw the Wild’s Marcus Foligno at the game, and he waved to our team!” Last night’s victory over the Pirates was also at the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) game.

Crookston stops a two-game losing streak and improves to 12-5-1 on the season and will now be how for their last three regular-season games left. On Monday, they have a Section 8A game at home with Thief River Falls at 7:30 PM. They are hosting East Grand Forks in a doubleheader with the Pirate boys’ team on Thursday. The girls play East Grand Forks at 5:00 PM, and the Crookston boys play Warroad at 7:00 PM. The Crookston girls will cap off the busy week with Dodge County on Saturday at 5:00 PM. The final three games of the regular season will be on the road, including playing Detroit Lakes in Mayville, N.D. Gentry Academy falls to 4-12 on the year and will host Benilde-St—Margaret’s on Tuesday.
JV – Gentry Academy beat Crookston 9-2