ST. CLOUD — St. Cloud State women’s hockey team returns to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center for a WCHA match-up against Bemidji State.
The Huskies drop the puck at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 and 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 against the Beavers. Both games will be available for streaming on BIG+ and tickets are a general admission flat rate of $5 for children and $10 for adults.
St. Cloud enters the contest donning a 6-2 record and ranked No. 9 in the country after coming a weekend sweep of (RV) St. Thomas to start 4-0 in the WCHA for the first time in program history.
This will not be the first time the Huskies matched up against the Beavs this season, beating them 4-2 in an exhibition game on Sept. 19.
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Scouting Bemidji State
The Beavers are 1-5 on the season and are coming off a scoreless weekend against No. 11 Minnesota Duluth, losing 3-0 and 5-0. Their lone win came against Maine on Oct. 10.
Bemidji deploys a young crop of skaters onto the ice, led by three sophomores — Maddie Kaiser, Lola Macuiba and Kasey Senden — each with three points on the season. Macuiba is joined by junior Izy Fairchild with pacing the Beavers in goalscoring with two each.
In goal, sophomore Sophia Villanueva has logged a .893 save percentage despite her 3.72 goals-against average. Simply put, opponents have been able to shoot at will against the Beavs this season. Villanueva sees over 35 shots per game to start the season, which is nearly seven more shots per game than Huskies have allowed this season.
Despite the bad that has led Bemidji State to its unideal start, the Beavers have not given up a power play goal in their last four games and have allowed just two all season.
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Keys to victory over Bemidji State
Pressure, pressure and more pressure
As previously stated, Villanueva sees a lot of pucks come at her each game. The Huskies should not be the team to give her a relaxing night by comparison. At least 35 shots need to be fired at the goal, and odds are that about four of them will go in.
Now, they cannot just start shooting aimlessly and without reason, but the shots will be there and if it is an open look it needs to be taken. There will be plenty of opportunities, and with coach Mira Jalosuo’s aggressive tendencies when playing with a lead, a good objective will be securing a three-goal win this weekend as No. 3 Minnesota and No. 11 Duluth both accomplished.
Capitalize on special teams
With Bemidji’s solid penalty kill rate at .846, and overall low penalty rate of just 2.8 per game for 5.7 minutes, the Beavs are a disciplined unit if nothing else.
Taking advantage of the opportunities when presented will be a huge boost for the Huskies after struggling in power play all season aside from a big weekend against (RV) Minnesota State. Converting on just one power play opportunity this weekend would be a good steppingstone moving forward.
Don’t get fancy
Obviously, college hockey is tough and sometimes a team will simply have a bad night. It happens. However, the Huskies have no reason not to be stacking another sweep this weekend. They are the more experienced team, with better goalie play and talented goalscorers and playmakers all over the ice.
If they play their game, take good shots and focus on the objective at hand, an 8-2 record will be theirs come Saturday evening.
You can reach St. Cloud Times sports reporter David Jacobs and send story ideas and tips to djacobs@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @davidrjacobs10, and on Instagram @ByDavidJacobs.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: How No. 9 St. Cloud State women's hockey can sweep Bemidji State