sports

THE SOLHEIM SISTER’S DO THE SCORING AND MAGSAM SHUTOUTS BEMIDJI 2-0

January 25, 2022

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team put up 15 goals in their last two contests, including last night’s 15-0 win at Detroit Lakes. Most betting people would have the under 15 tonight when the Pirates played at Bemidji. They would have taken some money as it was another dog fight with the Solheim sisters, Rylee and Cassie scoring goals, and junior Pirate goaltender Kailee Magsam stopping 16 shots to lead the Pirates to a 2-0 win over Bemidji on a cold night inside and out at the Bemidji Community Center!

Back in the middle of December. Crookston and Bemidji played to a 1-1 overtime tie, with the Pirates outshooting Bemidji 41-20. The Pirates came out flying tonight, carrying the play with short shifts and not allowing Bemidji to get the puck out of their zone. Bemidji only had two shots on goal in the period, but both needed the calmness of Magsam. The first was a breakaway by the Lumberjacks, and the shot was turned aside neatly. Then another Bemidji flurry in the Crookston zone, and the Lumberjacks defenseman Chloe Hasbargen got the puck off a clean draw, walked up the slot, and hammered a shot on that Magsam got a pad on, and the rebound went all the way out to the blue line where Crookston picked it up. “On the breakaway, I had a good position and was able to get my glove on it,” said Magsam, “on the shot up the middle, I had to clue where the puck was as I was screened, didn’t see it, and managed to get a pad on it.” Crookston had multiple opportunities to score with some tremendous offensive pressure, but they weren’t having much luck trying to solve how to get the puck past Lumberjack goalie Payton Wiedemann. “She has played well against us both times,” said Crookston coach Emily Meyer, “she isn’t very tall, but quick. Our girls were trying everything high on her, which she had no problems with, so they were looking at other ways to get the puck by her.” After the first 17 minutes, nobody could put one in the back of the net, and it was 0-0.

The second period was another carbon copy of the first period for the first 11 minutes, with both sides getting multiple grade-A scoring chances. On a two on none, Bemidji came in on Magsam’s left side, and the skater with the puck elected to shoot, going for the short side, and Magsam was right there for a huge save. On the other end, Crookston had chances as well, with Cassie Solheim having two or three chances as well as a slapshot that got derailed by the time it got to Widemann. There wasn’t much drop off in the lines with the aforementioned short shifts, “We wanted to do that to keep them short, and the girls would go hard for 45 seconds or so and then dump it iub away from the bench, and we’d change the entire group,” said Meyer, “we were running three lines, and they had trouble doing that, which was to ou advantage.” Finally, the Pirate got on the board when senior captain defenseman Rylee Solheim scored to get the Pirates the lead, “Rylee stepped into the play,” said Coach Meyer, “Reese Swanson did a good job of finding her open, and Rylee was able to shoot it home for us.” Crookston had the lead at 1-0 with just over five minutes to go in the second period, and it would end that way. “It was a good period with a lot of rushes both ways, good goaltending, and other than a couple of lapses, I thought it was a good one for us,” said Meyer.

“We wanted to go out in the third period and keep the gas on,” said Meyer. That is precisely what the Pirates did from the opening faceoff. The puck was in their zone, constantly putting the pressure on Wiedemann, who looked confident. “She played well for them tonight,” said the Pirate goalie Magsam. Crookston had chances like Morgan Nelson and Brekken Tull on a two on one, and Nelson made a beautiful pass in the slot to Tull, and Widemann robbed her with her outstanding glove. Addie Fee and Reese Swanson had a triage of terrific chances, Fee to Swanson, who was point-blank but stoned. Fee on the same flurry, in front and stopped and then Swanson again as Aleah Bienek dug out the rebounds and set them up again, but to no avail. Bemidji used their time out with just over two minutes to go in the game, and with 1:50 to go, they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. Crookston had a couple of long shots go wide, but then with a scrum in front of Magsam, the Pirates took a penalty with 1:05 to go, and 20 seconds later, the younger Solheim, Cassie, salted away the victory with an open net goal and gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead. The goal by Cassie came after she was battling just outside the Lumberjack’s blue line, and she had the puck, didn’t have it, got it back, and buried the shot. “We played a great game with a lot of emotion, skating, shooting, defending, it was fun and hopefully will carry us into the game on Thursday with Fergus Falls,” said Meyer.

The win was Crookston’s fourth in a row, and the third straight shutout for Crookston goalies as the Pirates improve to 11-5-1 on the year. In the two games against Bemidji, the Pirates put 78 shots on goal, and Weidemann stopped 76 of them (excluding the open net goal!! On the other side? Magsam played both games and saw 35 shots and made 35 saves!!
Crookston will be at home Thursday night when they host the Fergus Falls Otters, and in the latest rankings, the Otters are #7 in Minnesota Class A. The game will be VIDEO STREAMED LIVE on kroxam.com