The St. Cloud State University women's hockey team (8-8-2, 4-8-2 WCHA) will continue its 2015-16 season on Jan. 8-9 with a pair of road games at Minnesota State University, Mankato (3-18, 0-14 WCHA). Â The Huskies and Mavericks will played at 2:07 p.m. on both days of the weekend series at the Verizon Wireless Center (4,832/200x87) in downtown Mankato.
St. Cloud State Women's Hockey Notes and News: St. Cloud State (4-8-2-2, 16 pts.; 8-8-2) opens 2016 play this weekend with a series at Minnesota State. The Huskies are 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Â
Earlier this season, SCSU scored a 4-1 and 4-2 weekend sweep against the Mavericks at the HBNHC on Nov. 13-14. Â Julia Tylke and Molly Illikainen each had three goals apiece in the sweep for the Huskies.
In its final series of the 2015 calendar year, SCSU earned a shootout win at Minnesota Duluth before falling 4-0 in the series finale. Â St. Cloud State went 2/4 on the power play in Friday afternoon's contest. Â Â St. Cloud tied the game when freshman, Julia Tylke scored her sixth career goal after making a move in close and finding the back of Kayla Black's net. Â Molly Illikainen picked up her 10th assist while Brittany Anderson got her 11th on the game tying goal. Seconds into UMD's third penalty, Vanessa Spataro sniped a shot past Black, sending the Huskies into the lead with 56 seconds left in the second period. Her first season goal was assisted by junior forwards, Payge PenaLauren Hespenheide. UMD tied up the game in the third period and 60 minutes of regulation time concluded with a 2-2 tie forcing a five minute overtime. Neither team could find the back of the net in the five minute overtime which resulted in St. Cloud's second shootout win this season. SCSU goaltender Katie Fitzgerald shut down UMD's Michela Cava leaving . Â SCSU with the opportunity to pull ahead. Tylke was put into her first college shootout and performed under pressure to give her team a 3-2 lead. Lara Stalder was sent in by the Bulldogs in hope to tie it up but Fitzgerald could not be beat. Illikainen was called on to finish the game for the Huskies and pulled through, sending a shot past Black, ending the game with a 2-0 edge in the shootout for St. Cloud.
Molly IllikainenThe St. Cloud State Huskies were shutout by the University of Minnesota Duluth after a 4-0 final score on Saturday Dec. 5. The loss ends the record breaking 7-game unbeaten streak that was set by the 2015-16 Huskies after three straight series sweeps and a shootout win against the Bulldogs in Friday afternoon's contest that ended after one OT in a 2-2 tie. Fitzgerald made 57 saves on UMD's weekend total of 62 shots.
On the season, Illikainen is tied for sixth nationally with 0.75 goals per game and is 12th with 1.38 points per contest. Also on the national leaderboards, Anderson is tied for 14th among defensemen at 0.72 points per game and Tylke ranks ninth among rookies with 0.76 points per contest.Â
Molly Illikainen leads the Huskies with 12 goals and 22 points this season, while Julia Tylke (6g/7a) and Brittney Anderson (2g/11a) are tied for second in the team charts with 13 points apiece. Â Illikainen leads SCSU on the +/- at +15 this season and she also leads with 44 shots on goal. Â In two years at SCSU, Illikainen has charted 22 goals and she has 40 goals in 123 career games as a college hockey player. Â Of note, she is a transfer from Providence.
The Huskies have scored 40 goals this season already after 18 games, which is just five goals away from their season total of 45 goals during the 2014-15 season.
Senior goalie Katie Fitzgerald was named a WCHA Player of the Month for November 2015. Â She paces the Huskies this season in the nets with a 2.81 GAA and a .908 save rate (464 saves) in 1003:09 minutes of play.
The Huskies are off to one of their best starts in over five seasons. Â With 8 wins already in 2015-16, the Huskies have already equalled their victory total from 2014-15 and are just one win away from the Huskies' nine wins recorded in 2012-13. Â The last time SCSU won more than 10 games in a season was 15 wins recorded in 2009-10.
About Mankato: Â The Mavericks are 3-18, 0-14 WCHA in 2015-16 and are led by first-year head coach John Harrington. Â He is assisted by former SCSU head coach Jeff Giesen. Â The Mavericks most recently gained a 3-2 win against Lindenwood on Jan. 3 and a 3-1 loss against Lindenwood on Jan. 4 at the Verizon Center. Â Sophomore Hannah Davidson leads the Mavs with 5 goals and 14 points while forward Katie Johnson has 11 assists and 14 points. Â Brianna Quade is MSU's top goalie with a 3.35 GAA and a .895 save rate.
