MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. – (RV) St. Cloud State Women's Hockey senior forward Klára Hymlárová delivered her first collegiate hat trick to lead the Huskies to a weekend and season series sweep of St. Thomas, 6-3 at the St. Thomas Ice Arena on Saturday evening.
 
With six conference points secured, the Huskies will enter the final week of the first half alone in fourth place with a three-point lead over (RV) Minnesota State.
 
Hymlárová scored twice on the power play and added a huge go-ahead – and eventual game-winning – shorthanded goal late in the second period. Grace Wolfe provided a three-assist night, Jenniina Nylund added three points on a goal and two assists while Olivia Cvar scored a goal and provided an apple for four multi-point Huskies. Emma Gentry added the final strike, scoring her third of the series late in the third.
 
The Huskies opened the scoring just a minute into the first, drawing a penalty then scoring seconds into the power play as Hymlárová fired a high-point shot past the goaltender's left shoulder. St. Thomas scored late in the first then took a 2-1 lead five minutes into the middle frame.
 
Nylund knotted the game back up at two just three minutes later, taking a feed from Cvar to the left circle then wrapping down around the goal to the tender's glove side. The fifth-year center darted up to the low slot and reached around stickside to send the equalizer home. St. Thomas retook the lead just past the midway point of the second period.
 
UST's lead wouldn't hold for long – less than a minute after their go-ahead goal, Nylund found Cvar skating ahead on a breakout. Cvar carried to the left dot and launched a heavy wrister past her defender and over the right shoulder of the goalie to draw things even at three.
 
St. Cloud State found themselves on the kill a bit later in the second, settling back into their no-middle structure in the defensive zone. A deflected puck skipped over to Hymlárová right near the bench-side blueline, leaving the senior with empty ice ahead through neutral. The Czech standout turned on the jets carrying down to the right side of the crease, putting the puck on the left pad then swatting the rebound in for her second goal of the game and first collegiate shorthanded strike.
 
Leading 4-3 midway through the third, the Huskies drew another chance on the advantage and again found Hymlárová on the high point – the Olympian ripped in a rocket just as she did in the first to complete the 24^th hat trick in program history.
 
The Huskies thoroughly dominated the third, limiting St. Thomas to just three shots on goal. Gentry netted the dagger, scooping up a loose puck and skating around a defender before wristing home her third goal of the series.
 
JoJo Chobak earned her fifth win of the year with 13 saves. St. Cloud State's penalty kill remained rock-solid, eliminating each of the Tommies' three power plays on Saturday while going 8-for-8 on the weekend.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski
 
"I'm super proud of them. We faced a lot of adversity here with a short bench, people playing through some injuries – I thought it was a pretty gutsy win for us. It's nice to get a sweep."
 
"You need your top players to be your best players. We found ourselves down on a couple of occasions, and our response was terrific – one by Nylund and then Klára shorthanded. Just elite players making a play when we needed one. That really gave us a lift. Going into the third, scoring on the power play right away was huge for us. We played pretty textbook after that and didn't give up a whole lot. We were sound defensively and just really closed it out in good fashion – that was good for our confidence."
 
"We went back to playing our way. We've been trying to work on our game offensively, possession, movement and cycling. It's improving, but it's not there yet. It's tough when you're short on your D corps. You can't play short – six D or seven D – and trust them to be great on their exits, creating your down-low, cycling and moving all over in the offensive zone to jump the rush. It's not humanly possible. We had to go back a little bit to the way we were at the beginning of the year and get above pucks, play solid defensively and be opportunistic on turnovers."
 
"I would say I'm pleased with our heading in the right direction. I'll never put a cap on expectations for what is possible – I'm really just focused on game-to-game and doing the little things right. We'll let outcomes take care of themselves over time. That's really what has happened. We just focus on winning our battles, executing our system and structure – that's where we're at. Just being attentive to our details and working hard."
 
Quotables – St. Cloud State senior forward Klára Hymlárová
 
On the strong leadership shown by the upperclassmen… "I don't think we're doing anything special – we just try to lead on the ice, to show our teammates how we want to play, what to do every day at the rink. It's what we do as leaders, just lead the way by example – that's what we try to do as the leadership group."
 
On her quick adjustment to skating with the defenders the last two weekends…"It already happened in Lindenwood where someone got hurt – we talked about it at the beginning of the season, where if someone were to get hurt I would probably play defense. For this week we had some D who were hurt, so I was practicing with that group all week. I was ready to play defense."
 
Quotables – St. Cloud State sophomore defender Grace Wolfe
 
On the Huskies' physical defense… "Mira really advocates for us taking body right away physicality-wise. For one, we need to shut teams down by doing that – it's always in our minds, when we're going for battles in the corner, that's our first thought."
 
On skating with Hymlárová as a D pair… "It's funny to hear 'Klára, you're with Grace,' on the bench – she's a great player in and out, so I'm never worried when she's out there. She used to play D, so she has a second sense of what that looks like. She does what she needs to do."
 
On her strong sophomore campaign… "Having more confidence has been key to that. As a freshman, you are kind of set back a little because you're not sure what the ropes are – I'm just finally feeling comfortable playing the way I like to play. That's really shown in the last few games here."
 
Notables

• Klára Hymlárová tallied her first collegiate hat trick with three goals, two on the power play and one shorthanded while putting four shots on goal
• The hat trick is the Huskies' 24^th all-time and the first since Jenniina Nylund recorded one on November 27, 2021 at RPI
• Hymlárová is the 18^th Husky to record a hat trick
• Grace Wolfe provided a career-high three assists while skating to a plus-one
• Wolfe is now on a five-game point streak
• Jenniina Nylund posted her fifth multi-point game of the season with a goal and two assists, throwing a game-high eight shots on goal while skating a plus-two
• Nylund moved into a tie for ninth all-time on the Huskies scoring list with her 85^th collegiate point, drawing even with Hailey Clarckson (07')
• Olivia Cvar scored a goal and added an assist for a multi-point game, putting four shots on and skating to a plus-two
• Emma Gentry scored a goal, put six shots on and was 11-8 on draws
• Mackenzie Bourgerie went 8-3 on faceoffs
• JoJo Chobak made 13 saves to earn her fifth win of the season
• St. Cloud State's power play went 2-for-4 on the night
• SCSU killed off all three St. Thomas power plays to go a perfect 8-for-8 on the weekend, adding a shorthanded goal
• The Huskies led 38-16 on shots, holding St. Thomas to just three shots on in the third period
• SCSU is now alone in fourth place with 19 conference points, three ahead of Minnesota State
• The Huskies are three games over .500 for the first time since October of 2014, a year in which they opened 6-3
• St. Cloud State has swept the season series with St. Thomas – marking the first time the Huskies have done so in conference play since the 2015-16 campaign when they took all four from Ohio State

Up Next
The Huskies look ahead to a home-and-home with No. 5 Minnesota next weekend, traveling to Ridder on Friday before hosting the Gophers on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Puck drop is set for 6:00 p.m. Friday at 3:00 p.m. CT on Saturday.
 
Information regarding single game and season tickets can be found at scsutickets.com. For all the latest on St. Cloud State Women's Hockey, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.