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St. Cloud, MN – Senior goaltender Sanni Ahola stopped all 19 shots she faced and first-year players scored three of four goals in the Huskies 4-0 win and home sweep of Union College. However, the Garnet Chargers who finished at the bottom of the ECAC standings last season were not a pushover battling the Huskies for 60 minutes in this non-conference tilt.
Much like Saturday’s contest, it was a slow start for the Huskies who were nearly matched in shots on goal for the first period with Union finally yielding their first goal 9:58 into the first period by 5th-year Klara Hymlarova who netted her first goal of the season with assists to Taylor Lind and Avery Farrell. It appeared Union would escape the period down by just a goal but they couldn’t maintain possession of the puck inside the last minute of play as freshman Laura Zimmerman added SCSU’s second goal at 19:44, her first of the year assisted by fellow first-year players Sofianna Sundelin and Ella Anick. Anick, the transfer from Bemidji State has had a torrid start to the season with her fourth assist in two games. SCSU edged Union 8-6 in shots for the period.
“I thought we came out a little bit flat in that first period”, said head coach Brian Idalski in the post-game press conference. “(We were) 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.”
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Anick was at it again in period two adding to the Huskies two-goal lead with a power play goal, her first goal of the season at 9:58 with a lone assist to Avery Farrell, her second of the game. The Huskies extended their lead to four goals with graduate transfer CC Bolby’s first goal of the season at 15:48 (Kaufman, Wolfe). Much like Friday’s game, the Huskies got stronger as the game wore on outshooting Union by an 18-7 margin.
The squads battled to a scoreless third period with the Huskies again outshooting the Garnet Chargers 12-6 in the 4-0 final.
On the solid weekend of goaltending by Jojo Chibak and Sanni Ahola allowing just one goal, Idalski commented “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.”
In another impressive performance by new faces to the team three of four goals were netted by new players and four of the seven assists as well. Transfers Ella Anick and CC Bolby registered their first goals as SCSU players and Avery Farrell added her first two assists. Sofianna Sundelin (2) and Ella Anick (4) both added to their assists totals with each picking up an assist.
“We’ve added talented players who coming are already pretty good at passing and making plays, ” said Idalski. “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.”
The Huskies now take a week off before hitting the road for a non-conference series with Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA on October 6/7.
Mult-Point Game: Ella Anick (1-1-2); Avery Farrell (0-2-2)
Game Statistics
Shots on Goal: 38-19 (SCSU)
Goaltender Saves: Ahola (SCSU) 19/19 100%; Wagner (UC) 34/38 .894 SV%
Power Play: (SCSU) 1/5 (20%); (UC) 0/4 (0%)
Penalty Kill:(SCSU) 4/4 (100%); (UC) 5/6 (83%)
Faceoffs: (SCSU) 32/57 (56.1%); (UC) 25/57 (43.9%)
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