Ahola Records Fourth Straight Shutout as No. 13 Huskies Women’s Hockey Blanks No. 10 Northeastern 2-0

Friday, October 20

Fairfield, Conn.

3:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

6-2-0

Northeastern

5-3-0

St. Cloud St.

Northeastern

Ahola Records Fourth Straight Shutout as No. 13 Huskies Women’s Hockey Blanks No. 10 Northeastern 2-0

10/20/2023 10:00:00 PM | Women's Hockey

Box Score

Sanni Ahola’s incredible season-opening streak continues, Kaufman and Hymlárová both score in win

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Senior goaltender Sanni Ahola extended her unprecedented season-opening shutout streak to four consecutive clean sheets as No. 13 St. Cloud State Women's Hockey (6-2-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) blanked No. 10 Northeastern (5-3-0, 2-1-0 EAST) 2-0 on Friday afternoon at Martire Family Arena in the semifinal of the Women's Ice Breaker. Ahola turned away all 21 shots she faced to improve to 4-0-0 on the year with four shutouts.

The Huskies controlled the game throughout, dominating defensively and outshooting Northeastern 30-21. St. Cloud State blocked 18 shots with six from junior defender Grace Wolfe and three courtesy of fellow junior defender Ella Anick. Strong discipline backed the defensive effort as SCSU did not take a penalty for the first 46 minutes of the game. After a bench minor for too many players on the ice, the Huskies were whistled for a hook a minute later and tasked with killing off a critical 5-on-3 Northeastern power play.

Allowing just one shot on the two-skater disadvantage and three total on the kill, SCSU swung the momentum fully on their side while returning to full strength with the game still scoreless. Graduate forward Katie Kaufman skated down to the end wall from the right circle, carrying the puck around the goal and swinging wide to the goal line below the left circle. Angling back towards the goal half a step above the goal line, Kaufman wristed home a jaw-dropping goal through an incredibly tight space between the tender's shoulder and the left pipe.

Now leading 1-0 with 10 minutes to play, St. Cloud State's defense continued their terrific work while silencing the Northeastern offense. Fifth-year forward Klára Hymlárová made it a two-goal game with an empty netter late, securing the 2-0 win.

QUOTABLES – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski

"Today was a battle all the way around. A tough road game for us coming off an emotional game on Tuesday, so super happy to make a couple of plays and come out on the right side of that one."

On Sanni Ahola's shutout streak… "I don't know, statistically, what that's ever looked like. I may have had a goalie get three or at least a couple in a row, but to get four – especially to start off the season – that's something I don't think I've ever been a part of. She's seeing the puck really well, she did a nice job to stay controlled and compact when things got scrambly. Just a fantastic job by her."

On the flow of the 5-on-3 kill in the third… "Overall just the lack of panic. Obviously that's a big moment – at the start of the year we haven't had a lot of 5-on-3 opportunities. Everyone was composed, executed well, we talked some things out – momentum wise, that gave us a little bit of jam afterwards. That Katie goal was another big goal, just back-to-back like that – that was huge for us."

"Nonconference games – we have so few of them – are super important. We have to take care of business as much as we can with that. Unfortunately we've already dropped one, and now we have to turn around after we've beaten someone and become their biggest fan – hope they knock off some teams to improve your strength-of-schedule and ramifications at the end of the year. We'll be big fans of Northeastern at the end of the year, hope they can get on a good run and be the class of Hockey East again. That was an important win for us today."

NOTABLES

Sanni Ahola extended her season-opening program record shutout streak to four consecutive shutouts while making 21 saves on the afternoon
Katie Kaufman scored her second goal of the season while Klára Hymlárová netted her third
The two forwards shared the SCSU lead with six shots on goal
Avery Farrell and CC Bowlby each tallied their third assist of the season
Grace Wolfe recorded six blocked shots while Ella Anick added three
SCSU outshot Northeastern 30-21
The Huskies' PK was 2-for-2 while the power play went 0-for-5
St. Cloud State improves to 2-1-0 all-time against Northeastern

UP NEXT
The Huskies meet Lindenwood at Martire Family Arena on Saturday, October 21 in the Ice Breaker Championship Game at 4:00 p.m. CT. Saturday's contest will be broadcast on NEC Front Row with live stats provided by Sacred Heart.

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.