MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – A four-goal second period was all St. Cloud State Women's Hockey needed on Friday evening as they took the series opener 4-1 over St. Thomas at the St. Thomas Ice Arena.
 
The Huskies outshot St. Thomas 31-14, went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off all five penalties.
 
Klára Hymlárová recorded her first career multi-goal game with a pair of strikes, Jenniina Nylund had a three-point night and Bailey Burton tallied a pair of assists as the Huskies had three multi-point scorers. Avery Myers scored her first SCSU goal to round out the offense.
 
After a scoreless first period dominated by St. Cloud State – the Huskies outshot the Tommies 8-1 in the frame – a 17-shot offensive barrage fueled four goals in the second.
 
Hymlárová struck first midway through the second period just off an offensive zone draw on the right dot, receiving a win from Burton and using a screen out front well to throw the puck past the goaltender. Nylund made it 2-0 a bit later as Allie Cornelius won a tieup on the far boards and poked the puck to her. The Huskies' assistant captain skated strong to the slot and used a stellar move to beat the tender gloveside.
 
Hymlárová scored her second goal of the period on the power play with just over five minutes to go, ripping a shot from the high point right off a good pass by Nylund. Leading 3-0 with three and a half to play in the second, Myers sent a blistering wrister past the goalie from the base of the left circle for the final tally of the frame.
 
Sanni Ahola made 13 saves on 14 shots to earn her second win of the season.
 
Turning Point
St. Cloud State's penalty kill supported the explosive second period, killing off all five Tommie chances and allowing just five shots. A critical five-minute kill at the midway point of the third period erased all chances of a St. Thomas comeback, swinging the momentum back to the Huskies.
 
Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski
 
"There's obviously a feeling-out period when you're facing a team you haven't played in a long time. I thought we played well in the first. We didn't get rewarded on the scoreboard – taking a couple of penalties, outshooting them 8-1, I thought we defended well and created opportunities for ourselves on the other end, we just didn't cash in."
 
"The second period was super good. I thought we did a good job of keeping pucks low, grinding, getting line changes. I thought we did a nice job, when we got a little bit of space, that we were aggressive and attacking the net. We get one off the screen, that was also a focus for us. Power play, same thing – we threw a nice screen. I have a lot of respect for their goaltender, I thought she was very good. We were focused on not letting her see things clean and making sure she wasn't really getting on top of her crease. We wanted to keep her in the blue paint and we did a nice job of that."
 
On the penalty kill… "We've talked about this before – special teams are super important. Mira's doing a great job with the kill, the players are starting to understand it a little more in the structure. Your goaltender's always the best penalty killer, Sanni did a nice job for us as well."
 
"It's about our process game-to-game, the team growing and us getting better. The outcome stuff will take care of itself. We just want to compete every game and work hard – we'll see where things fall later in the year."
 
Quotables – St. Cloud State forward Klára Hymlárová
 
On her first goal… "When I play on the right side, it's harder for me to play on my forehand so I told Bailey to take the faceoff – she's a righty so it's easier for her. She won it, I shot it and we scored the goal. We've been working a lot on screening and were much better tonight, and we when we do that we can score more goals.
 
On her second snipe of the night… "Well, I got the puck from Jenniina, closed my eyes and shot it there  – it went through, so that was good!"
 
On the penalty kill… "We work a lot on penalty kills in practice. We try to be aggressive, which makes it harder for them to play on the power play. I think we did a good job of doing what we were supposed to be doing on the PK, and we were super aggressive on them so we were successful tonight."
 
Notables

• Klára Hymlárová delivered her first career two-goal game
• Jenniina Nylund had her second collegiate three-point night with a goal and two assists
• Avery Myers scored her first SCSU goal
• Bailey Burton had a pair of assists while Allie Cornelius tallied one
• Sanni Ahola stopped 13 of 14 shots to earn the win in goal
• Regan Bulger posted a career-high five blocks and skated to a plus-2
• Grace Wolfe skated to a career-best plus-3
• Emma Gentry led St. Cloud State with four shots on goal
• SCSU outshot St. Thomas 31-14
• The four-goal second period marked the first time St. Cloud State scored four times in a period since they did so in the second frame on February 5, 2021 against Minnesota State
• The win secures the Huskies three conference points and is their first WCHA win under Brian Idalski
• SCSU now leads the all-time series 3-2-1
   

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