by Noah Grant/Sports Director/@noahgrant_23

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Cloud State women’s hockey team battled back from a two-goal deficit to defeat St. Thomas 3-2 in overtime on Friday. Sofianna Sundelin had the overtime winner for the Huskies. 

Despite holding the Tommies to just four shots in the first period, St. Cloud found themselves trailing after the opening 20 minutes. A few mistakes in the defensive zone proved costly for the Huskies. 

St. Thomas jumped out front five minutes in off a point shot from JuliAnna Gazdik. The long wrister made its way through traffic to open the scoring. 

The Tommies doubled the lead on an individual effort from Whitney Horton. With the Huskies on the power play, Horton stole the puck around the defensive blue line and used her speed to cut in on a breakaway and slip the puck five-hole. 

“We definitely didn’t come out flying, that first period was very flat,” said Huskies head coach Mira Jalosuo.  “I liked the first half of the second period. St. Thomas didn’t get a first shot on net until 10 minutes and 15 seconds into the second period.” 

The Huskies made a strong push in the middle frame and were finally rewarded at 11:02. Maelie Pion skated a puck into the offensive zone and threw a shot to the front of the net. Myah Krueger was able to knock the rebound home from the top of the crease for her first of the season.  

Heading into the third, SCSU went looking for the equalizer. The Huskies picked up a power play chance with 14 minutes to go when former Husky Sydney Bryant was handed a boarding penalty. 

St. Cloud State had tremendous pressure on the power play, but it would take until just seconds after the man advantage expired for the tying goal. Maria Mikaelyan ripped a wrister through a screen in front for her sixth goal of the season at 12:04. 

“I just kept telling them, stay patient, we had looks there,” said Jalosuo. “We had the chances. So it was just a matter of time when it’s gonna go in. So very, very proud of the group.”

Both goaltenders had to make big saves in the final minutes of regulation. With two minutes to go, both sides were handed minor penalties to set up four-on-four play. Then with 51 seconds left, Anna Sviridova was whistled for tripping. 

The Tommies had a full two minutes across the end of the third period and into overtime of a four-on-three power play, but were unable to cash in. Alexis Ehrman made key saves on the kill for the Huskies. 

“Penalty kill was outstanding,” said Jalosuo. “We did a very good job killing it there, and, again, proud of the penalty killers there. That was a huge 2 minutes for us.”

Sundelin would be the hero after the St. Thomas’ power play expired. Sundelin pulled the puck off the half wall and cut to the net, ripping a shot off the crossbar and in for the game winner at 3:20 of overtime. 

The Huskies improve to 5-2-0 on the season and 3-0-0 in WCHA play. St. Cloud State takes on St. Thomas again on Saturday at 2 p.m. Noah Grant and Gideon Teuber will have the call on 97.5 RadioX. 

Photo Credit: SCSU Athletics/Jacob Sanders