THEIF RIVER FALLS BESTS CROOKSTON GIRLS HOCKEY BY A 3-1 SCORE FOR THE THIRD TIME

The Thief River Falls Prowlers keeps their mastery over the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Hockey team with Thief River Falls senior Shelby Breiland staking the Prowlers to a 3-0 lead with a hat trick in the first two periods, and then fellow senior goalie Gabriella Steele stoned the Pirates for most of the game including a furious third
period and for the third time this year and all by identical 3-1 scores.  Thief River Falls will be the number two seed for the Section 8A Tournament with the win tonight.
In a Ripley’s, believe it or not, Crookston Girl’s Hockey has not beaten Thief River Falls for 10 years. That’s about 16 or so straight games the Prowlers have beaten Crookston!! “There was a stretch there when they were very, very good,” said Crookston head coach Tim Moe, “I think it was a five-year period or so that they just dominated, scoring 100 goals to our two!!”

First Period
Thief River Falls was playing their 12th game of the season and had scored only 21 goals in the first 11 games, 11 by Shelby Breiland. It took all of 1:42 into the game when Breiland and Gretchen Cota attacked the Crookston net. Cota put a shot on goal that was stopped by Crookston goalie Kailee Magsam, with the rebound laying in the crease. Breiland found it before the Pirates could clear, and it was a 1-0 Prowler lead. In the three games that Crookston has played Thief River Falls, the Prowlers have scored nine goals, and Breiland has figured in every goal, whether scoring or having an assist!  Crookston had all kinds of problems getting to loose pucks, getting the puck out of their zone, at times just happy to dump the puck, and usually right to a Prowler. “For whatever reason, we just couldn’t get anything going,” said Moe,” they were winning every race to the puck. We talked to the girls between the period that they were doing what we’ve been doing to other teams. We couldn’t get the puck out of our own end because we were getting beat to those loose pucks.” Thief River Falls continually was forcing the play, creating chances that either Magsam stopped or shots were wide, and the Pirates were fortunate to get out of the period with a 1-0 deficit.

Second Period
1:24! That was the time early in the second period that Breiland needed to put another damper in any thoughts of a Crookston comeback as the senior from Red Lake Falls dazzled with a couple in close plays and dekes that Magsam stood no chance on. “Shelby is something,” said Moe, “she can do special things on the ice, big and strong, great shot, and you have seen the moves she can make. There is a reason she is going to Bemidji State next year.” Crookston had a chance just over halfway through the period when Carli Pickett of Thief River Falls was given a five-minute major for kicking! That put Crookston on the power play for five minutes, and you can score as many goals in that time period you can. Asked before the game about the Pirate power play, coach Moe said, “That’s not very good for us. I was checking back, and I think we have one power-play goal this
year. It’s not that we don’t work at it, but I think we have two minutes or this instance, five minutes, and we think we have a lot of time and making too many passes instead of taking shots.” Crookston didn’t get more than a couple of shots on goal during that five-minute man advantage and would go into the second intermission trailing 3-0.
“I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve played two-period like that,” said Moe, “we were reaching all the time. We couldn’t break out without a Thief River Falls player in our face. It was just wasn’t very good hockey on our part up to this point.”

Third Period
Crookston stepped it up in the final period, and how did that happen? “Our seniors,” said Moe, “they know that our season and their final high school season is coming to an end, and they have taken ownership of this team and talked about it in the locker room. We can play better. We can win a period.”
The Pirates had another two-minute power play but didn’t score, although they showed signs of waking up, Cassie Solheim winning a draw, carrying the puck from her own end into the Prowlers zone, and getting chances for her and her linemates. The Pirates were having a hard time solving the Thief River Falls senior
goalie, Steele, who would go down and cover up pretty much everything and not giving up many rebounds either! Just over halfway through the period, Crookston senior from Mayville, N.D., Nora Peterson would finally solve the problem with Steele, going top shelf over the goalie’s glove to get Crookston on the board and trailing 3-1. “Steele didn’t go down on that play,” said Moe, “she stayed up, and I’m not sure how Nora beat her there, but it was a great shot. I’ve been telling Nora to shoot more, she has one of the best shots I’ve coached, and she has to utilize that more.” The Pirates turned up the pressure even more. Addie Fee was in the low slot in front by herself and was robbed by Steele, Brekken Tull, Reese Swanson, Catherine Tiedemann, the same thing. The Pirates pulled their goalie with 2:10 to go in the game, and then Thief River Falls took another penalty, and Crookston had six skaters against the four Prowlers and Steele. There were many chances that didn’t get to the net as the Pirates continue to have a knack for not getting a shot through or hitting the opponent!! It was a good burst and period for Crookston. “I’m happy with the play, it was a nice way to finish the game, and we certainly didn’t give up. If the game had ended after the second period, I probably wouldn’t feel the same.”
Crookston outshot Thief River Falls 17-10 in the third period and 32-30 for the game.

The Pirates are now 6-8-1 on the year and will play their final home game of the season on Thursday hosting Fergus Falls. “It will be senior night where the three will be recognized for all their work for Pirate hockey, Nora, Catherine (Tiedemann), and Mackenzie (Epema),” said Moe. “Fergus Falls just beat Thief River Falls 5-1 last Friday week and have won five of their last six games, including a 5-2 win over East Grand Forks, so it will be another tough game, but I hope we can get back to playing how we were and play three solid periods of hockey.” Crookston will play at Roseau on Friday night, and then Monday, they are at Detroit Lakes to finish off their regular season. IF Crookston should beat Detroit Lakes, they would probably be the number three seed ahead of East Grand Forks, and that would mean Crookston would open up the Section 8A Tournament semi-final AT THIEF RIVER FALLS for a fourth time this season!! “They say it’s hard to beat a team three times. I would suspect it would be even harder to beat a team four times in a year,” said Moe.
Thief River Falls is now 6-5-1 and will host East Grand Forks on Thursday.
JV – Thief River Falls won 4-2.

1st Period
1:42 – TRF – Shelby Breiland (Gretchen Cota)

2nd Period
4:17 – TRF – Shelby Breiland (Jenae Johnson, Daniella Niebuhr)
5:41 – TRF –  Shelby Breiland unassisted

3rd Period
9:39 – Crox – Nora Peterson (7) (Mackenzie Epema)