No. 12 SCSU swept out of WCHA Tournament by No. 7 Bulldogs

Saturday, February 25

Duluth, Minn.

5:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

18-18-1

Minnesota Duluth

25-8-3

St. Cloud St.

Minn. Duluth

2/25/2023 11:00:00 PM | Women's Hockey

Box Score

Taylor Lind scores lone goal as Huskies fall 5-1 to Minnesota Duluth in Game Two

DULUTH, Minn. – No. 12 St. Cloud State Women's Hockey (18-18-1, 11-16-1 WCHA) couldn't overcome a demoralizing second period in game two of the WCHA Quarterfinals at No. 7 Minnesota Duluth (25-8-3, 17-8-3 WCHA), falling 5-1 to suffer a sweep at the hands of the Bulldogs on Saturday evening.

Entering the second period down 1-0 after a UMD strike late in the first, the Huskies let in three goals – including two with under two minutes to go in the frame – while being outshot 27-7 in the period, allowing 12 shots on goal during a five-minute major called just before the 15:00 mark late in the frame.

Playing much of the third with an empty net, the Huskies scored their lone goal on a power play seven minutes into the period as Taylor Lind found the backdoor and punched in a pass from Grace Wolfe.

Sanni Ahola made 24 saves on 26 shots while JoJo Chobak stopped 19-of-21 as the two goaltenders both saw time in the crease.

Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski

"First of all, congrats to Duluth. That's a battle-tested team with a lot of experience being national runners-up. I thought that shined through today. They were pretty poised, they took it up another notch. It's tough enough playing them straight-up, but a couple bounces here and some adversity was a little too much for us today."

"It will likely take a few days to be able to get some retrospective, look back and evaluate everything that has happened this year. Again, so proud of our older group and senior players – giving us a chance as a new staff – they've worked super hard and they've seen a lot of benefit to the work they've put in. I thought they kept getting better and better and there's still more room for growth. I'm proud of that group. They've really changed the culture in a short amount of time, and that's not easy to do."

"I'm well aware that development isn't a straight line. We'll have a lot of younger kids next year – the roster is going to be younger with how many older players we had on the roster this year. We'll see – what I do know is we'll have more depth. There will be more compete on the roster for playing time, I would like to see us take another step next year, but I'm also aware that it takes some time with such a young group to teach them the right way.to play and get them to understand what it takes to the compete at this level."

"I think we got a pretty good education of what it looks like at the end of the year to ramp it up another level. These are the processes you have to go through. We've played a lot of meaningful games down the stretch in February – the goal next year is to play some meaningful games in March."

Notables

Taylor Lind scored the Huskies' lone goal while putting two shots on goal
Courtney Hall and Grace Wolfe each provided an assist
Dayle Ross led St. Cloud State with four blocks while Taytum Geier added two
Sanni Ahola stopped 24 of 26 shots faced
JoJo Chobak made 19 saves on 21 shots while playing just under 18 minutes in the second period
SCSU was outshot 48-24 including a 27-7 margin in the second
The Huskies established a new program record for single-season blocks on Saturday, closing the year with an NCAA-leading 576 blocked shots

Up Next
The Huskies and Bulldogs get set for Game Two of the best-of-three series on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in a win or go home scenario for St. Cloud State. Fans can watch the game live on Big Ten Plus or listen via 97.5 FM RadioX, with both streaming options 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.