St Cloud women’s hockey riding win streak after upset win over #1 Gophers

Coming off what’s potentially the biggest win in program history, St Cloud State’s women’s hockey team is on a roll.

The Huskies (7-6) shocked #1-ranked and previously unbeaten Minnesota 4-1 in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Face-off Classic in Andover on Monday – their first win against the Gophers (9-1-1) in 64 tries dating to February 2010.

Click the video box on this page to watch KSTP Sports’ Chris Long’s chat with St Cloud State’s Taylor Lind and head coach Brian Idalski after their upset win over #1 Minnesota gave them their longest win streak in seven years.

The Huskies had been on an 0-62-1 streak against the Gophers, and hadn’t beaten a team ranked #1 in the nation since defeating Wisconsin on October 19th, 2007.

Their all-time record against Minnesota now stands at 4-100-3.

The Huskies now arry a 5-game win streak into this weekend’s home series against #7-ranked Minnesota-Duluth. It’s the team’s longest win streak since winning six in a row in 2015.

The apparent turnaround in St Cloud comes in the Huskies first season under new head coach Brian Idalski.

He was formerly the head coach at North Dakota when the administration in Grand Forks abruptly and surprisingly shut down the women’s hockey program.

Since then, he’d been contracted as coach for the Chinese national women’s hockey team, coaching them through the pandemic and playing in a home Winter Olympics earlier this year in Beijing.

Photo courtesy: St Cloud State Sports Information / Thomas Breach