Article by Felicity Harding. Photo by Felicity Harding.
The St. Cloud State Women’s hockey team started their season this past weekend where they faced off against the Lindenwood University Lions on Friday and Saturday.
While it took the Huskies a bit of time to adjust and settle in, they were still able to dominate and control play in the first period where they outshot the Lions 16-9.
The Huskies were able to strike first with their first goal of the season coming from junior forward Alice Sauriol with only 27 seconds left in the first period. Sauriol’s first of the season was assisted by freshman defenseman Maélie Pion and junior defenseman Sydney Bryant.
The Huskies again dominated in the second outshooting Lindenwood 12-7. The Huskies were able to add to their lead 5:49 into the second after junior forward Sofianna Sundelin was able to find the back of the net. Junior forward Alice Sauriol and freshman defenseman Sydney Lamb registered assists on the goal.
The Huskies really settled into the third period and found their offense even more, outshooting the Lions 15-2. Only 1:22 into the period, junior forward Marie Moran gave the Huskies a 3-0 lead with assists from Lamb and sophomore defenseman Siiri Yrjölä.
After Sundelin took a shot from the middle of the zone, freshman forward Julianne Labbé was able to tip the shot into the back of the net. Sundelin’s second of the night came 7:01 into the period while on the powerplay with assists from Sundelin and defenseman Grace Wolfe.
The Huskies finished their scoring with another powerplay goal, this time coming off of a wrist shot from freshman forward Maria Mikaelyan. Mikaelyan’s first collegiate goal came only 20 seconds after Sundelin’s powerplay goal. Red-shirt junior Laura Zimmerman and Yrjölä registered assists on Mikaelyan’s goal.
The Huskies finished Friday night 2/2 on the powerplay and were also able to go 4/4 on the penalty kill after shutting down Lindenwood’s powerplay efforts.
“Nora [Raty] is in charge of the PK and she did an excellent job explaining it on Tuesday. We went through it a little bit on Wednesday as well but you can see that we’re going to be a very hard team to play against even on a penalty kill,” said Head Coach Mira Jalosuo on the teams early penalty kill success.
After winning Friday night 5-0, the Huskies came out flying on Saturday with graduate goaltender Jojo Chobak playing in her first game since March 2, 2024.
“I mean it feels great to be back. I’m just so excited to be back in the locker room and actually contributing with the team and everything. So that was super fun. I think there’s still definitely some kinks to work out in my game and stuff. But it was a great start for us and a great start for me as well,” said Chobak of her first game back.
Maria Mikaelyan was able to find the back of the net only 2:38 into the period with assists from Sofianna Sundelin and Maélie Pion. The Huskies then added to their lead 4:19 into the period off of a beautiful shot from Siiri Yrjölä. Yrjölä’s goal was assisted by Julianne Labbé and freshman forward Payton Remick.
The Huskies continued to add offensive pressure as junior forward Payton Holloway who was able to deke past the defenders and put the puck right past the goaltender. Holloway’s goal came 6:30 into the first and was assisted by senior forward Avery Farrell and Siiri Yrjölä. St. Cloud finished up their first period scoring with junior forward Sidney Jackel’s first goal as a Husky against her former team. Jackel was able to pick up her own rebound and backhanded it into the net. Jackel’s goal came 10:37 into the period and was assisted by Labbé. The Huskies outshot the Lions 9-7 in the first period.
Going into the second period, the Huskies saw their offensive success slow down a bit as they did not find the back of the net during the middle 20. But the Huskies dominated on offensive chances, outshooting Lindenwood 17-5 in the second.
The Huskies finished off their scoring for the night 6:31 into the third period as Svenja Voigt got off a nice shot that ended up in the back of the net, giving St. Cloud a 5-0 lead. Voigt’s goal was assisted by Jackel and Yrjölä.
The Huskies finished the series and completed the series sweep with another 5-0 win over the Lions on Saturday. Sophomore goaltender Emilia Kyrkkö received the shutout on Friday night while graduate goaltender Jojo Chobak received the shutout Saturday night. Chobak’s tenth career shutout tied the program record for most career shutouts which was previously held by Sanni Ahola.
Head coach Mira Jalosuo also received her first win and series sweep as the new head coach of the Huskies. Siiri Yrjölä was named the WCHA Defender of the Week after her five point weekend while earning a plus/minus of +4.
“I think [Yrjölä’s] definitely grown a lot and carried some of that confidence with her from last year. I think that she plays really calmly and she’s very composed. So, I always love that about her. At least on the defensive end, she does a great job of boxing out, making sure I can see pucks and covering people that are in front. Even today she had one really good pickup for me. So it’s super awesome to see her get some points too. And yeah, she’s awesome,” said Jojo on Siiri Yrjölä’s performance over the weekend.
The Huskies will be hitting the road this weekend, to take on the University of Connecticut on Friday, September 26 and Saturday, September 27. Puck drop will be at 5:00 pm Friday and 2:00 pm Saturday.
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