Taylor Lind (Photo Prout)
St. Cloud, MN – The SCSU women’s hockey team has little time to celebrate their non-conference sweep of RPI last weekend at the HBNHC. They defeated RPI 5-0 and 3-2 and continued their mastery over the Engineers with their sixth straight win. All attention now is on a road trip to Columbus, Ohio to face the reigning National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes.
SCSU Huskies (2-0-0) vs Ohio State Buckeyes (2-0-0)
TV: none
Live Stream: BIG+
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Where: OSU Ice Rink; Columbus, Ohio
When: Fri., October 7, 5:00 PM CT / Sat., October 8, 2:00 PM CT
Head to Head
The Huskies have an overall record of 27-49-10 vs the Buckeyes. They are 11-24-7 in Columbus, OH, and are 0-10 in their last 10 games. The last meeting between the squads was February 25/26, 2022 in Columbus with the Buckeyes sweeping the weekend series by 6-0 and 3-0 scores.
Scouting the Ohio State University Buckeyes
The reigning national champions won their last 10 games of the 2021-22 season including a 2-1 win over Wisconsin in the WCHA tournament championship game and a 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth in the national championship game on March 20, 2022.
The Buckeyes started their 2022-23 season with a road sweep over MSU Mankato. However, it wasn’t easy as the Buckeyes had to rally in each contest for a win. OSU rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the series opener winning 2-1 and outshooting the Mavericks 32-16. In the weekend finale, OSU outshot MSU 46-21 but again had to rally from a 3-1 deficit with three third-period goals to capture the win.
An experienced team, the Buckeyes return five of their top seven points producers from last season including points leader Sophie Jaques (21-38-59), Paetyn Levis (24-29-53), Jenna Buglioni (18-26-44), Jennifer Gardiner (15-24-39 and Gabby Rosenthal (19-6-35).
Evidence of their experience is Rosenthal, Jaques, and Levis are all fifth-year seniors and Gardiner is a fourth-year senior.
On defense, they return a full platoon of players from 2021-22 including fifth-year senior Madison Bizal (3-24-27 +17), seniors Lauren Bernard (4-20-24 +33), and Hadley Harmetz (3-10-13 +28), and junior Riley Brengman (4-7-11 +13).
They return an outstanding junior goaltender Amanda Thiele who posted a 1.31 GAA and .939 SV% last season.
JoJo Chobak (Photo Prout)
Scouting the St. Cloud State University Huskies
The Huskies are a veteran team returning 17 players from last year’s squad. In addition to experienced goaltending, the Huskies return their top ten leading scorers from 2021-22. Included in this group are leading scorer and junior, Emma Gentry (15-8-23), senior, Oliva Cvar (10-4-14), senior, Taylor Lind (8-17-25), and senior, Jenniina Nylund (7-8-15).*
Three forwards, Klara Hymlarova, Jennina Nylund, and Laura Zimmerman, are coming off participating in the 2022 Beijing Olympic games. Hymlarova competed for the Czech Republic while Zimmermann competed for Switzerland and Nylund for the Bronze Medal winning Finland. However, Zimmerman is injured and could be out for several months. On defense, the Huskies are led by senior Taytum Geier, fifth-year senior McKenna Wesloh, and sophomores Grace Wolfe, Dayle Ross, and Chase Sperling. First-year players Regan Bulger and Lauren Tuzik look to contribute as well.
The Huskies are in a strong position in goal with experienced goaltenders Sanni Ahola and Minnesota-Duluth transfer JoJo Chobak and Freshman, Julia Bachetti. Ahola has appeared in 28 games the last two seasons and despite a lofty 3.53 GAA has a respectable .906 SV%. Chobak appeared in 22 games for the Bulldogs and has logged outstanding numbers including a 1.88 GAA and .926 SV%. I expect the coaching staff will rotate goaltenders. Both logged wins last weekend with Chobak getting a shutout in her first game as a Husky.
With a new head coach, five first-year players, and three transfer players it continues to be a work in progress for the Huskies. Certainly, the team will rely on their upperclassmen to lead while the team sorts out how the first-year players fit into the team. Head coach Idalski will continue to build his team around his top four forwards Nylund, Lind, Gentry, and Hymlarova, and a workhorse on defense Taytum Geier.
Series Prospectus
The Huskies have a huge road challenge in front of them in facing the defending national champions who have won 10 straight over SCSU. It’s likely they’ll play Chobak in goal on Friday and Ahola on Saturday when it appears the Buckeyes will unveil their national banner.
The Huskies need to get out to a good start on Friday and hopefully catch the potent Buckeyes off guard much like the Mavericks did last weekend. The top two lines need to be aggressive early and have some success early on against a very good goaltender. Solid goaltending will be a key as the Buckeyes will most likely place a high number of shots on goal. Coach Idalski is not the type to lay back early and play defensive, rather he’ll try to push the play with a strong forecheck and aggressive play.
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