No. 12 SCSU shut out at No. 7 Minnesota Duluth

Saturday, February 11

Duluth, Minn.

3:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

16-16-1, 9-16-1

Minnesota Duluth

21-8-3, 15-8-3

St. Cloud St.

Minn. Duluth

2/11/2023 7:00:00 PM | Women's Hockey

Box Score

Huskies allow empty-netter late in 2-0 loss at UMD

DULUTH, Minn. – No. 12 St. Cloud State Women's Hockey battled No. 7 Minnesota Duluth to the end on Saturday evening at Amsoil Arena, allowing an empty-net goal late to fall 2-0 in the series finale. Huskies netminder Sanni Ahola delivered a terrific performance in the crease, turning away 30 of 31 shots and allowing a lone power play goal.

Taytum Geier led the Huskies with four blocked shots while Dayle Ross put three shots on goal and blocked a pair of her own. SCSU outshot the Bulldogs 8-4 in the first period but saw the shots go the other way at a combined 28-7 UMD advantage in the second and third, culminating in a second-period power play goal.

St. Cloud State returns home for a pivotal series against (RV) Minnesota State beginning on Friday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center as the two sides collide in a battle for the No. 5 seed in the WCHA Quarterfinal.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski

"A little disappointed today. The last couple weekends, I thought that second night we had chances in front of us to take hockey games that have big implications not only in league standings but overall in the national picture. I'm disappointed for our kids that we weren't able to find a way to get it done. Overall, when you take a step back, you have to be happy with the compete level. The way we're defending, just giving everything we have to be playing, really, above our pay grade on paper. You have to like the will, the heart and the compete that we're showing every weekend now."

On his goaltenders' tremendous weekend… "They're awesome. They have been awesome all year. Every night they go out and give us a chance to win a hockey game. It doesn't matter who we're playing, they've been terrific. That bodes well for us down the stretch but also moving forward knowing that we're going to have those kids back for a couple of years. We feel good about where we are in net, what that looks like, obviously a huge bright spot for us. I'll take it a step further – they didn't score a five-on-five goal all weekend. That's the No. 7 team in the country. Defensively for us to do that, yeah, I'll take that. Normally we'll give ourselves a chance to win a hockey game if we're that good."

On preparing for Minnesota State next weekend… "I'm more concerned with the fatigue level. Some of our kids are playing heavy minutes and have been for a little bit. How can I keep them fresh physically and mentally, and emotionally getting ready for that game? It will be interesting to see – last time we played Mankato we talked about it being a playoff series, and I don't think we responded super well. We'll get a rest, get back home and get back prepping to see what we'll do."

On playing potential WCHA Quarterfinal opponents in Wisconsin and UMD… "We knew that coming down the stretch, playing Wisconsin and Duluth, it was going to be one of those two teams. We talked about playing both of these series as hard as we could so neither one of them would necessarily want to face us. I think we accomplished that. We're not in the standings race to be picky about who we're playing. We're going to get a quality opponent either way. It will be on the road, we're going to have to compete super hard, get a few bounces and hopefully get an opportunity to advance."

On work left to do in hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth… "I'd have to go and look what happened after this game – prior to the game, we're sitting at 11, a win probably would have pushed us pretty darn close to 10. Now we've got some work to do. I've always felt, first of all, that we needed to take care of what we needed to take care of, but also that we'd need to advance out of a playoff series. A loss today probably means we have to win a game in the Final Faceoff if we get there. We've got some work to do, but you never know. It depends on who wins their tournaments and if there's any upsets, things like that."

Notables

Sanni Ahola made 30 saves on 31 shots
Taytum Geier blocked a team-high four shots
Dayle Ross blocked two shots and led SCSU with three shots on goal
Regan Bulger blocked three shots while Grace Wolfe added two of her own
SCSU was outshot 32-15
Over their last four games, St. Cloud State has taken 16 penalties compared to their opponents' six

Up Next
The Huskies' final home series of 2022-23 begins on Friday, February 10 at the HBNHC with a 6:00 p.m. CT puck drop against (RV) Minnesota State.

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.