BEMIDJI, Minn. – Three first period goals and stellar special teams led St. Cloud State Women's Hockey to a 3-1 win over Bemidji State on Saturday afternoon at the Sanford Center, securing their second-straight sweep and fourth-straight win.
McKenna Wesloh scored the game's first goal just 3:20 into the first with the Huskies on a power play, taking advantage of heavy traffic up front to throw a screened shot past the goaltender. Emma Gentry made it 2-0 just four minutes later, carrying the puck around from the end boards and launching a heavy wrister through for her eighth career goal against Bemidji State.
The Huskies found themselves on the advantage again five minutes later, moving the puck around beautifully to the top of the slot for
Klára Hymlárová. SCSU's assistant captain ripped a rocket home for her seventh goal of the year, providing the Huskies a 3-0 lead. Hymlárová played a key role in the Saturday sweep, putting four shots on goal and blocking four shots herself while going 13-8 on draws.
JoJo Chobak was stellar between the pipes, earning her third win with 28 saves. She is the first Huskies goaltender to win three of her first five starts for the program since Taylor VanDenakker did so in 2008-09 as a rookie.
Turning Point
Following their three-goal first, the Huskies found themselves in the box often during the second. SCSU killed off four Beaver power plays in the middle frame, relying on a grit-and-grind effort to keep Bemidji State off the board. Chobak stepped up in the frame to stop all 14 shots she faced including five on the kill.
Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski
"We talked yesterday about wanting a good first period. We got that today. We came out and played really well, established ourselves, did all the little things we wanted to do and built up ourselves a pretty good 3-0 lead. After that I thought things got a little loose, and we had to just grind the rest of the way out – we made things a lot harder on ourselves."
On the three-goal first… "We did a great job of getting pucks deep. We did a great job on the forecheck, we managed pucks, we played with good intensity, we were taking pucks hard to the net – we played very, very well. We got a bounce on a couple, but overall if we can get the power play clicking like it was early it bodes well for your team. Again, the special teams were very good for us today."
On the Huskies' success screening for quality chances… "Player have a tendency to want to stand on the side and deflect or tip. Goaltenders are too good for that, especially in this league. It's been something we've talked about and tried to work on in practice – understanding what net-front presence means and what it looks like. You have to have some traffic or you're just not going to be able to score. The goaltending is too good."
On the penalty kill continuing to deliver… "Mira's doing a great job with the penalty kill. I enjoy what she's doing in the style of it – the players are continuing to get more comfortable in the structure and system. It's been big for us. I thought it was a pretty physical weekend overall, and for us to be able to win the special teams battle, really just hunker down and get some big saves when we needed them as well as some big clears. Some good penalty kill time for us, which was really important – especially in that second game."
On the improved work on draws… "Number one, we've been getting killed on draws. You can't be a puck-possession team when you don't start with the puck. It's a lot harder to go win it back after that. I thought our centers have been working hard on it in practice, and they were doing a decent job for us – it's been more of the wingers holding up, supporting the draws better. That was something we talked about prior to the weekend, and it was good to see them execute that much better. A step in the right direction in that area of emphasis for sure."
Expectations vs. performance early in conference play… "I have worked hard to not put expectations on this group, one way or the other. It was really important that we just focus on our details, focus on shift-to-shift mentality and understand that some of those outcomes will take care of themselves. With that being said, it should be an expectation that St. Cloud wants to be a Top 10 team – that St. Cloud wants to host a playoff series and play in the Final Faceoff. These are things that players coming in to our program, that this is who we are, what we're becoming and what we want. We just need a group – and this group seems to be the group that's putting the flag in the sand to say, 'this is who we are, this is what we want, and this is what our expectations are.' Whether that's this year or not, I really feel like at least this is the group that legitimately is starting to talk about what it looks like and what we need to do to get to that point."
Notables
- Klára Hymlárová scored a goal, put four shots on, had four blocks and won a game-high 13 draws
- Hymlárová is now just one point away from joining the 50-point club
- Emma Gentry and McKenna Wesloh each scored a goal in the win
- Gentry now shares the team lead in goals with eight, tying herself with Jenniina Nylund
- Nylund had two assists and won 10 faceoffs, recording her 15th career multi-point game
- Grace Wolfe provided her first collegiate multi-point game with a pair of assists
- Olivia Cvar added one assist
- JoJo Chobak earned her third win of the season with 28 saves on 29 shots
- With their five kills, SCSU has extended their successful PK streak to 25 straight kills
- The Huskies trailed 29-26 on shots
- SCSU's four-game winning streak is their longest in-season win streak since they won five straight games between Oct. 17-Nov. 8, 2014
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