Crookston, Minn.- The Crookston Pirate girls hockey team will open up its 2013-2014 season at home at the Crookston Sports Center on Saturday. The Pirates return 14 members of last season’s team and welcome four new players to the team as Jeff Perreault enters his 2^nd season as Head Coach of the Crookston Pirate Girls Hockey team.

The Pirates are coming off an 13-12 (4-9 Greater Minnesota Conference) record during the 2012-2013 season as they finished seventh in Greater Minnesota Conference play and will look to improve their record this year. The Pirates return five starters from last season, which include Lexie Cormican (Freshman, G) who recorded .874 save percentage and 3.42 GAA in the 2012-2013 season and also recorded a 9-12 record between the pipes for the Pirates. Macy Strem (Freshman, F), had one goal two assists for the Pirates last season. Sabrina Delmore (Soph, D), had five goals and nine assists on defense for the Pirates last season. Leah Trostad (Soph, F), had two goals and six assists for the Pirates last season. Amber Trostad (Sr, F), had five goals and five assists for the Pirates last season.

Also returning for the Pirates are Lizzy Awender (Sr, F), Annie Hajostek (Soph, F), Claire Conati (Sr, F), Tori Demarais (Soph, D), Abby Parr (Jr, F), Brooke Schmitz (Sr, F), Nicole Goosen (Soph, D), Jayden Allrich (Fresh, D). Awender had six goals and five assists. Hajostek had three assists. Conati who battle some injury during the 2012-2013 season recorded three assists along with Hajostek. Demarais had one goal and thirteen assists which she tied the team with the most assists along graduated senior Brianna Brieland. Parr had one goal and three assists, Schmitz had one goal and eleven assists, which she came in second with most assists on the team. Goosen had one goal and one assists while bouncing back and forth between JV and Varsity for the Pirates with a knee injury. Allrich had one goal and no assists for the Pirates while also bouncing back and forth for the Pirates between JV and Varsity.

The Pirates are looking to bounce back strong in the 2013-2014 season even though they lost a lot of talent from last years seniors that had a lot of goals for the Pirates. The Pirates 2012-2013 season ended again last year in the Section 8A semis-final game against the Warroad Warriors with a score of 7-0. Again the Pirates will be looking at trying to make it to the Section 8A Championship but will have to beat three top teams that are returning good players. These teams include the Section 8A champions the Warroad Warriors that return four top players which include Demi Gardner, Mariah Gardner, Francesca Huerd, and Lynn Astrup. Section 8A runner-up the East Grand Forks Greenwave return four top players as well which include Madi Galstad, Haley Mack, Erica Eades, and CoCo Piche. Section 8A Third place team the Thief River Falls Prowlers return four top players as well which include Emily Bergland, Sylvia Marolt, Brandi Malwitz, and Frances Marshall. These top three teams will be the teams to beat in Section 8A this year as most of these teams return a lot of top players from last year and two top goalies as well.

Jeff Perreault and the coaching staff look forward to the 2013-2014 season to see what this young Pirate girls hockey team can do for them this season. The Pirates will start their season this Saturday November 16, 2013 against the White Bear Lake Bears at the Crookston Sports Center starting at 3:00pm.