Story courtesy of St. Cloud State Sports Information
ST. CLOUD, Minn.--The St. Cloud State women's hockey team completed their regular season with a 3-1 victory and a series sweep over North Dakota on Saturday, Feb. 17, in the National Hockey Center. The Huskies six seniors (Bobbie Anderson, Hailey Clarkson, Tricia Fast, Jackie Jensen, Denelle Maguet and Lauri St. Jacques) were honored for Senior Day before the drop of the puck.
“It was a great way to end the regular season today with the win,” said SCSU's first year head coach Jeff Giesen. “It's been a long time since we've been able to pull a win together for our Senior Day celebrations, and I'm glad we could do it for this senior group today.”
Senior co-captain Hailey Clarkson (Winnipegosis, Manitoba) posted the first score of the game for SCSU at 08:20 of the first period on the lone Husky power play goal of the game. Oakdale native Caitlin Hogan fired off a shot from the point and Clarkson was waiting in front for the tip-in goal, which marked her 11th of the season third of the weekend. Laura Fast, a junior forward and assistant captain for the Huskies, tallied the second assist on the Clarkson goal.
Heading into the first intermission, SCSU was leading 1-0 after out-shooting UND 14-12.
Late in the second, North Dakota's Jodi Holland knotted the game at 1-1 with a top shelf goal past SCSU's senior goaltender Lauri St. Jacques (Sturgeon Falls, Ontario) at 18:02. The Huskies were quick to respond as they retook the lead at 18:27 with a goal from junior defender Brittni Kuyper (Eden Prairie). SCSU's Amy Currier assisted on Kuyper's fifth goal of the season.
With 1:23 remaining in the game, UND's head coach Dennis Miller called a timeout, eventually pulling their first year goalie Brittany Kikham from net.
SCSU took full advantage of the empty net as Laura Fast charted her first shorthanded goal/empty net goal of the season with one minute remaining in the contest. Clarkson posted her 13th helper of the season on the goal to give SCSU the 3-1 lead and eventual victory.
The Huskies went 1-of-4 on the power play and held UND to 0-of -4 on power play opportunities.
“Our penalty kill has been good all year,” said SCSU's Giesen. “We were much more adaptive to what was going on on the ice today and that showed on our special teams.”
With 12 shots on net in the third period, UND went on to out-shoot SCSU 33-30 in the contest. SCSU now leads the all-time series over North Dakota, 14-4-2.
SCSU was led by Clarkson and L. Fast, who each charted a goal and an assist in the win.
St. Jacques backstopped SCSU with 32 saves in her last game in the NHC as her record improved to 6-8-1 on the season.
The Sioux finish the regular season 3-29-2 overall and 0-27-1 in the WCHA and will open the first round of the WCHA playoffs next Friday at Wisconsin in a best-of-three series.
