Ahola Shines as No. 13 Huskies Women’s Hockey Blanks Union 4-0

Sunday, September 24

St. Cloud, Minn.

1:00 P.M. CT

St. Cloud State

2-0-0

Union

0-2-0

Union (NY)

St. Cloud St.

The Huskies celebrate a goal by graduate forward CC Bowlby (center) during No. 13 St. Cloud State's win over Union on Sept. 24, 2023

Photo by: Bill Prout

Ahola Shines as No. 13 Huskies Women’s Hockey Blanks Union 4-0

9/24/2023 7:45:00 PM | Women's Hockey

Box Score

St. Cloud State earns season-opening sweep behind strong defense and excellent puck possession

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Senior goaltender Sanni Ahola recorded her first shutout of the season as No. 13 St. Cloud State Women's Hockey (2-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) swept Union (0-2-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) with a 4-0 win at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on Sunday afternoon. The Huskies outshot Union 38 to 19, held the advantage on draws and won the special teams battle with four successful kills and a power play goal.

Nine Huskies recorded a point in the win as junior defender Ella Anick and sophomore forward Avery Farrell provided multi-point efforts. Anick scored her first goal as a Husky and added one helper, skating to a plus-two with three shots on goal. Farrell tallied two assists while putting one shot on.

Ahola was a steady presence in the crease, turning away each of the 19 shots she faced. The senior shut down a handful of odd-man rushes and added a pair of impressive covers in traffic, lunging into lanes and earning her defense a whistle. She played a key role in the 4-for-4 Huskies penalty kill, stopping all five Union shots on the advantage.

Fifth-year forward Klára Hymlárová put the Huskies on the board midway through the first with an impressive display of her 200-foot game, first stepping up in the defensive zone to close space and block a shot from the right point. The puck deflected to the left wall and was collected by Farrell, who promptly passed ahead to fifth-year forward Taylor Lind as SCSU rushed ahead on the breakout. Lind carried ahead through neutral and skated to the right circle, flanked by Hymlárová on the left side of the 2-on-1 rush. Once the lone Garnet Charger defender moved to Lind and opened a passing lane, the SCSU captain dished across the slot for Hymlárová to chip in a one-timer from just beyond the crease.

Efficient puck movement on zone entry led to another St. Cloud State goal with under a minute to go in the opening period. Hymlárová carried the puck in tight to the left wall and sent a pass to the high point for redshirt freshman forward Laura Zimmermann. The playmaking right wing dropped a beautiful back pass to freshman forward Sofianna Sundelin, then the latter flipped a quick feed to Anick on her right. Anick punched a wrister on the pads that careened into the slot – right onto Zimmermann's stick in time for a rebound as the Olympian backhanded in her first collegiate goal.

Leading 2-0 midway into the second period, SCSU converted on a power play off an effort play from Anick. Farrell won a draw on the right dot following an offsides and pushed the puck back to Anick as senior forward Avery Myers tied up the Union wing stepping up. Anick cut up the right wall and knifed her way into the right circle, making a strong move left into the slot and firing in a backhander for her first goal as a Husky. St. Cloud State's final strike came five minutes later as junior defender Grace Wolfe knocked a puck loose on the backcheck, corralled by graduate forward Katie Kaufman and passed across the blue line to fellow grad transfer CC Bowlby. The wing skated ahead strong through neutral, cut left to the high slot and rifled home a rocket for her 50^th collegiate point.

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTABLES – St. Cloud State head coach Brian Idalski

"I thought we came out a little bit flat in that first period – lucky to be able to finish off a couple plays and take a lead at the end. After that I thought we were pretty solid the rest of the way through. A good weekend to get a couple of games under our belt and come out with a couple of wins. A bye week ahead for us, so plenty to work on."

On Ahola and Chobak's terrific effort in goal over the series… "We've come to expect that. Either kid can carry the mail, and probably would carry the mail for any other team. We're pretty blessed to have two that we feel are quality starters in this league. It's awesome – a great place for us to start as we become a competitive club that wants to be in the top 10."

On the improved SCSU puck possession… "Two-fold – obviously if you want to be a puck possession team, you need to be able to move the puck. It's been a little bit of a focus for us. Then for two, we've added talented players who coming are already pretty good at passing and making plays. In fact, I'd tell you we maybe overpassed a bit too much today – I don't remember saying that too much last year – we had one zone entry where we made five passes before we decided we wanted to shoot the puck."

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

NOTABLES

Sanni Ahola logged her fourth career shutout while stopping all 19 shots she faced
Ella Anick recorded her second career multi-point game with a goal and an assist while skating to a plus-two with three shots on goal
Anick closed the series with a team-leading five points on a goal and four assists, logging a plus-five on the ice with two blocked shots
Avery Farrell provided her fifth career multi-point game with a pair of assists
CC Bowlby scored a goal for her 50^th collegiate point and skated to a plus-two
Laura Zimmermann scored her first collegiate goal and put three shots on
Klára Hymlárová skated to a plus-two, put for shots on and scored her first goal of the season
Emma Gentry put a game-high nine shots on goal
Katie Kaufman recorded an assist and put five shots on
Sofianna Sundelin won all seven of her draws while tallying one assist with three shots on goal
Taylor Lind and Grace Wolfe each provided an assist
Addi Scribner went 5-1 on draws
The Huskies outshot Union 38 to 19
SCSU went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and scored once on their five power plays
St. Cloud State dominated the long change in the second, recoding 18 shots on goal while putting six on during their two power play opportunities
SCSU improved to 3-0 all-time against Union

UP NEXT
The Huskies have an early bye week before returning to the ice for a road series at Mercyhurst on October 6-7. St. Cloud State's next home series is set for October 13-14 against Bemidji 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.