Mira Jalosuo is entering her second season as head coach of St. Cloud State's women's hockey program. There's a strong foundation, on which she'll look to build success this season.
When Brian Idalski was hired as the first head coach of the PWHL's Vancouver Goldeneyes, it opened an opportunity in Minnesota for a fresh face at St. Cloud State. They tapped then Minnesota Frost asssitant coach Mira Jalosuo as their next head coach. Now with a season under her belt as head coach, Jalosuo is looking to build on the foundation that exists, and find new levels of success for the Huskies.
Jalosuo still feels the team and program are in transition, but they're also ready for next steps.
"I think that we are kind of in this transition period right now," said Jalosuo. "Obviously Brian Idalski took over the program four years ago. So at that point we were very, very blue collar. We always work hard, so there's never questioning the work ethic. But now we have some skill in this team. So it's kind of finding that balance of coaching a skilled team, but also a team that works very hard. And then obviously the next step for us is that we want to have a home advantage for the WCHA (playoffs). So it's just getting to the top four in the WCHA, which we know it's extremely difficult to do, but knowing the roster we have this year, I think that it's possible."
Knowing her roster includes trusting there are veteran contributors ready at all positions including Emilia Krykko in net, Siiri Yrjölä and Máelie Pion on the blueline, leading scorer Alice Sauriol, and veterans Laura Zimmerman and Sofianna Sundelin who bring international experience up front. Sauriol and Sundelin in particular were the top two scorers on the roster last season, and as seniors, they will be a dangerous duo.
"It's huge, obviously they're going to be seniors this year, so they know how to lead this group and the expectations are very high for our group that it's an older group than last year," said Jalosuo. "Last year we had 14 new players, so it was an up and down season. So this year everybody's a little bit a year older. I think that it's going to show in the games that it's not such a big of a roller coaster and now to know what to expect. But Alice (Sauriol) and (Sofianna) Sundelin, they are our key players for this year and they know that they need to be producing for us to have a successful season."
Overall, Jalosuo is still working to bring in her own touches to the program. One change this year will be the size of ice surface St. Cloud State with renovations to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center shrinking the Huskies' ice from the Olympic size surface they've played on in the past. While those adaptations will come quickly, including players being required to make quicker decisions on the smaller ice, it's the mental aspect to the game and winning mentality Jalosuo hopes to continue developing.
She's also learning to adapt her own style coming from the pro level, and going back to the basics of teaching more to her roster.
After a sixth place finish in the WCHA last year, there's plenty of room for the St. Cloud State Huskies to climb.
They'll begin that process September 25 and 26 against UConn, before opening their WCHA schedule the following weekend on the road against Minnesota State in Mankato.
