SWANSON & TULL’S THIRD PERIOD GOALS LEAD PIRATES TO FOURTH WIN IN A ROW

The Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team scored two goals in the third period for the second straight game to beat beat the Irondale Knights at the Ralph Englestad Arena Holiday Classic in Thief River Falls.

After playing 35 and a half minutes of the game without any scoring, the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team’s Reese Swanson scored an unassisted goal a minute and a half into the third period to give Crookston a 1-0 lead and halfway through the period, Brekken Tull found a puck near center ice, pounced on it and sped into the Irondale zone on a breakaway and went high to beat the goalie to give Crookston some breathing room in a 2-0 lead.  Exactly four minutes later, Irondale’s Jada Grant scored to pull within one with five minutes to go in the game! Although Irondale came close a couple times, Crookston dominated enough in the last five minutes that Irondale was unable to pull their goalie and the Pirates won their fourth game in a row in a 2-1 win over the Knights at the Ralph Engelstad Arena Holiday Classic in Thief River Falls.

The first period was a portent of things to come!! Crookston’s best chances came on a Swanson breakaway with about five minutes left in the period but were stopped as was Grace Fischer who had a tip that almost got by.  It appeared that Irondale’s strategy was to slow down the game and had numerous icings during the game. “We started wearing them down especially toward the end of the period,” said Emily Meyer, Crookston head coach, “we thought we could capitalize using those, but it took our girls a while to get in that mindset of playing our game and it took us a while to get there.”

The second period was almost a carbon copy of the first with some grade-A scoring chances for both teams but Jennifer Rupp, the Irondale goalie, and Crookston’s netminder Jacey Larson stood tall in both nets. Pirates Addie Fee was point-blank in front of Rupp, but was stopped. Swanson again on a mid-ice breakaway, came storming in and missed the net!! Irondale came inches from scoring in the period as the puck was on the goal line but Larson somehow kept it out and it was still 0-0 after 34 minutes of play. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net,” said Meyer, “We were standing around a lot and not moving around to get in position to receive a pass deep in their zone.” After two periods Crookston outshot Irondale 19-13.

The third period saw the ice break as far as scoring as Swanson again moved the puck into Irondale’s end and then did sort of a circle-a-thon going from the blue line around the boards, behind Irondale’s net, and around again when she took a shot and it appeared to hit an Irondale player and back to Swanson who buried it to give Crookston the first goal and a 1-0 lead. “That was a huge goal,” said Meyer, “it broke the ice sort to speak and pumped up the team. Reese did a great job of puck possession and finely broke through. That was a problem we had where we were telling the wings that they had to move and get in position to receive and pass and put that puck in.” With 10 minutes left in the game, the Pirates leading goal scorer, Tull grabbed the puck right at center ice and blazed into the Knights end straight on their goalie and blistered a shot past Rupp and nothing but net and Crookston’s lead was 2-0. It only lasted four minutes when Irondale got on the scoreboard when Jada Grant spoiled Jacey Larson’s shutout possibilities with six minutes to go. The Pirates did a great job of putting pressure on in the Irondale end and the Knights couldn’t even think of pulling their goalie for the rest of the game. “We played a real physical West Fargo team yesterday and were down a bit mentally and physically even though we won,” said coach Meyer, “We had to rise above that and I think it just took us a little bit longer.”

The Pirates are 4-0 on the season for the first time in 11 years and have a week off before they make a road trip to the suburbs of Minneapolis and play the number two ranked team in the latest State Class A polls, Orono on Friday night and then over to Delano to play the Tigers on Saturday at NOON. In that same poll, the Crookston Pirates are ranked #15 in the state and fellow Section 8A foe, Warroad is ranked #1!!! “We have a very tough stretch coming up starting with Orono on Friday and then Delano on Saturday,” said Meyer, you don’t want to look too far ahead but we play Warroad the following Tuesday, so we have to have a good week of practice to get ready for this tough part of our schedule.” Orono is 5-0 after beating #9 ranked Chisago Lakes today 9-1. Orono will play #7 ranked Holy Angels Academy on Thursday, the day before they play the Pirates!
Irondale who won their first game yesterday over Thief River Falls drops to 1-3.

1st Period
No Scoring

2nd Period
No Scoring

3rd Period
1:29 – Crox –  Reese Swanson  (3)   unassisted
8:03 – Crox –  Brekken Tull (4)  (Aleah Bienek)    (SH)
12:03 – Irondale – Jada Grant  (Audrey Walsh)