No. 12/13 St. Cloud State Women’s Hockey Falls to Mercyhurst

Friday, October 6

Erie, Pa.

5:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

2-1-0

Mercyhurst

3-2-0

St. Cloud St.

Mercyhurst

Photo by: Jason Soria

No. 12/13 St. Cloud State Women’s Hockey Falls to Mercyhurst

10/6/2023 11:30:00 PM | Women's Hockey

Box Score

Huskies blanked 2-0 by Lakers, struggle on power play

ERIE, Pa. – No. 12/13 St. Cloud State Women's Hockey (2-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of Mercyhurst (3-2-0, 0-0-0 CHA) on Friday evening at the Mercyhurst Ice Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, falling 2-0 in the series opener despite outshooting the Lakers 26-16.

Two quick goals on an early 5-on-3 in the first period would be all Mercyhurst would need, digging the Huskies into an early hole. St. Cloud State's penalty kill regained its footing, killing off Laker power plays in the second and third, but the other half of the club's special teams struggled as the power play went 0-for-6 on the night.

The Huskies were flummoxed by Mercyhurst goaltender Ena Nystrøm as the Norwegian Senior National Team starting tender turned away all 26 Huskies shots including each of the club's 10 recorded on the power play. Senior goaltender Jojo Chobak stopped each of the seven even-strength shots she faced and stood up to a handful of breakaways to keep things close.

Senior forward Emma Gentry and graduate forward CC Bowlby shared the SCSU lead with four shots a piece while the former won seven of her 11 draws for a 63.6% percentage in the circle. St. Cloud State won just 46.3% of faceoffs – going 1-5 (16.7%) on the kill and 5-6 (45.5%) on the advantage.

QUOTABLES – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski

"Tip your hat to Mercyhurst. They played a good game – I thought they came out with some hop, they were obviously able to score a couple of goals early, and they defended super well. We need to be better for tomorrow."

"I definitely thought that we were adjusting to the rink and skating on the smaller sheet. We turned over too many pucks, there wasn't as much flow as we would have liked but at the end of the day it was a special teams battle and we put ourselves in a bad spot."

"We've addressed now that we're three games in, you start to see some patterns and behaviors – good and bad – developing. I don't think we've started any of our games this year particularly well. We've been able to right the ship at home, but playing from behind isn't the best way to start on the road. I really think we just need to come out stronger – we've adjusted to the rink, we've adjusted to the referees – we have to be hungry and do what we need to do to come out of here with a win tomorrow."

NOTABLES

The Huskies led 26-16 on shots
Jojo Chobak turned away all seven even-strength shots she faced and made 14 saves on the night
St. Cloud State went 0-for-6 on the power play
Emma Gentry went 7-4 on draws and shared the team lead in shots with CC Bowlby at four each

UP NEXT
The Huskies and Lakers square off Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. CT in the series finale at the Mercyhurst Ice Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. Fans can follow along to the action with live streaming on FloHockey ($) and live stats provided by Mercyhurst – links to both options are available on the SCSU Women's Hockey schedule page.

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.