St. Cloud State Skyrocketing Up National Rankings As Program Impresses Early

St. Cloud State has put the nation on notice. The WCHA women's hockey program is off to a torrid start, skyrocketing up the national rankings as one of NCAA women's hockey's early-season surprises.

To open their campaign, St. Cloud State swept #7 UConn, themselves unranked at the time, winning a pair of 4-2 games.

In their second week of the season, the Huskies swept #14/15 Minnesota State beating the Mavericks 5-2 and 3-0.

Prior to the season, second year head coach Mira Jalosuo spoke on the veterans who are leading her roster at the moment, and the growth the 14 first-year players from last season have had.

"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," said Jalosuo. "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."

So far, Sauriol and Sundelin have been impact players. While it's only been two weeks of their season, Sauriol is leading the NCAA in scoring with 11 points, while Sundelin sits tied for second with eight. 

For her first week efforts, Sauriol was named WCHA Forward of the Week. St. Cloud State also jumped into the national rankings sitting 13th after week one. 

In week two, rookie netminder Alexis Ehrman was named WCHA Goaltender of the Week, while Maria Mikaelyan was named WCHA Forward of the Week after scoring a hat trick against Minnesota State.

Junior defender Siiri Yrjölä and rookie blueliner Anna Sviridova have also been excellent for the Huskies early on in their climb.

After their 4-0-0 start, St. Cloud State took another major jump to eighth in USCHO's national rankings as well. They landed at 10th in the USA Hockey rankings as well.

They'll prepare to face their third straight nationally ranked program this weekend taking on Colgate before a pair of WCHA series' against St. Thomas and Bemidji State.