West Fargo Wears Down Pirate Girls Hockey For 7-2 Victory

The West Fargo United scored the final four goals of the game and pulled away for a 7-2 victory over the Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team in a game played at Ralph Englestad Arena in Thief River Falls.

The first period saw the Pirates put together one of their better periods of the young season with a nice mix of quality shots on goal and solid defense. Crookston had several scoring opportunities, one of them coming when Nora Peterson skated in after making a nice move along the board, but the West Fargo United goalie, Brooklyn Myrvik, made a nice save to keep the Pirates off the scoreboard. With 4:37 left in the period, West Fargo’s Madison Hjelden received a pass along the boards at center ice and showed an impressive burst of speed and sped by several Pirates for a breakaway and had a nice wrist shot find the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. “That was the best we have played in a period without a doubt,” said Pirate Coach Tim Moe. “It was a fantastic period and the compete level was very high for the girls and it was nice to see. We had some scoring chances and did a pretty good job defensively and we played with confidence.”

Both teams picked up the offense in the second period and Crookston started it off when Nora Peterson had the puck at center ice and showed a tremendous burst of speed and flew by all the West Fargo players along the boards and when she hit the circle she cut towards the net and fired a wrist shot past the goalie to tie the game at 1-1 a little over a minute into the period. “She’s going to be a special player for us,” said Coach Moe. “She was good today and she showed on the goal. That was one of the hardest shots I have seen from a Crookston player in a couple years.” Five minutes later, West Fargo answered with the second goal of the game for Madison Hjelden for a 2-1 lead. West Fargo added another goal 43 seconds later on a nice wrist shot from the circle from Payton Harland for a 3-1 lead. Less than three minutes later, Crookston had three players in front of the West Fargo net and Catherine Tiedemann and Nora Peterson had shots on goal and the puck bounced to the top of the crease and Kendall Bergquist slapped at the puck and the goalie made the save but it bounced off to the side of the net and Bergquist followed the puck and had a wide-open side of the net and slid the puck into the net to bring the Pirates within a 3-2 deficit with 7:08 left in the period. “That isn’t something that we see all the time where we have several girls fighting in the crease,” said Coach Moe. “Kendall kept after it and she competed hard and her hard work paid off with a goal.” West Fargo scored with 1:45 left in the period and took a 4-2 lead into the second intermission. “We seemed to run out of gas a little bit towards the end of the period,” said Coach Moe. “The girls were upbeat in the locker room after the period and we were only down two goals against a very good team.”
The Pirates seemed to run out of gas in the third period as they were outshot 16-2 and West Fargo scored three goals in the final 7:05 of the game and pulled away for a 7-2 victory. “I think we wore down a little bit and that came back to bite us a little bit,” said Coach Moe. “We were playing five defenseman and two lines up front and that hurt us. The girls were working hard and West Fargo wore us down. We know we can compete against good teams and hopefully going forward we will realize that. I think it is another step forward. We need to get a couple kids back and that will help us.”

Crookston drops to 1-2-1 on the year and will play Northern Lakes in Pequot Lakes on Thursday. West Fargo improves to 2-1 on the year.

Nora Peterson makes a move   Taylor Garrett passes the puck to a teammate

Jocelyn Brekken brings the puck up the ice along the boards

1st Period
4:37  – West Fargo –   Madison Hjelden   (Erin Nowacki)

2nd Period
15:38 – Crookston – Nora Peterson (unassisted)
10:33 – West Fargo – Madison Hjelden (unassisted)
9:50 – West Fargo – Payton Harlund (unassisted)
7:08 – Crookston – Kendall Bergquist (Nora Peterson, Catherine Tiedemann)
1:45 – West Fargo – Erin Nowacki (Payton Harland)

3rd Period
7:05 – West Fargo – Quinn Nowacki (Morgan Bents, Madison Hjelden)
4:00 – West Fargo – Madison Hjelden (Kaycee Herring)
2:23 – West Fargo – Madison Hjelden (Kaycee Herring, Quinn Nowacki)