The UND women's hockey team had won 14 straight games against WCHA foe St. Cloud State prior to Friday night's meeting at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
On the opening night of the teams' previous meeting in St. Cloud back in October, it took UND until the 14:35 mark of the third period to beat the Huskies -- a Michelle Karvinen goal that gave UND a 2-1 victory. The following night, North Dakota dominated the Huskies, winning 6-1.
Friday, it was more of the same as North Dakota extended its win streak against St. Cloud, beating the Huskies 4-0 -- once again in dominant fashion, outshooting the Huskies 37-16.
"I thought we did what we needed to do in order to win a hockey game," said North Dakota coach Brian Idalski. "We picked up big points not only in the league but in the national picture."
In the first period, North Dakota was able to gain some momentum with just eight seconds remaining in the period. On the power play, Josefine Jakobsen received a pass from Meghan Dufault on the left wing and fired a wrist-shot past Huskies goalie Julie Friend for a 1-0 lead.
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Early in the second, Susanna Tapani found Gracen Hirschy on the left wing. Hirschy put a move on the St. Cloud goalie and finished with a backhand. Following a North Dakota penalty, Andrea Dalen received a Jakobsen pass and made a toe-drag move to bury the puck top shelf, giving North Dakota a short-handed goal and 3-0 lead.
"Jose (Jakobsen) got it right onto my stick," said Dalen. "I saw that the defense was picking her up so I went to the goal and that's what we're taught to do so it's fun to see the hard work pay off."
The third period saw a North Dakota power-play goal when Layla Marvin ripped a slap-shot from the left circle that beat Friend for the final goal.
North Dakota goalie Lexie Shaw posted her first career shutout in the win, finishing with 16 saves.
"Lexie has been playing really well," Idalski said. "I'm excited for her getting her first career shutout. Unfortunately we didn't make it easy on her, she still had to earn it down the stretch."
North Dakota improved to 14-5-2 overall and 11-4-2-1 in the WCHA. St. Cloud fell to 4-18-3 and 3-14-2-1.
"A shutout is always exciting and a confidence booster," said Shaw. "Hard work pays off. Going into the second half (of the season), it's a good start. It's always good being home because we have our home crowd and it's where we practice so we're really comfortable here. I think the best is warming up and having the home crowd cheering for us."
