SMALL TOWN GOALIE, BIG TIME POTENTIAL
What defines a ‘small town’?
Is it a lack of well-known coffee shop chains and fast food joints? Is it dirt roads and the absence of stoplights and stop signs? Or is it simply just defined by population; one-thousand, five-thousand, ten-thousand?
Depending on who you ask, and where they’re from, you’ll likely get multiple different answers. One thing that everyone can agree on though is that goaltender Mallory Hartl absolutely comes from a small town - Askov, Minnesota. Population? 364. Askov sits in the eastern part of the state, about twenty minutes north of Hinckley, and just off of Interstate 35 that runs north to Duluth.
Everything is about to change for the 17-year-old netminder this fall though as she’ll be moving over 1,400 miles away from home to attend Providence College and compete on the women’s hockey team there. That’s about a 21-hour drive from home in Minnesota and it’ll be a huge culture shift since she’ll be trading her current lifestyle in Askov for a new one in Rhode Island in a city of almost 200,000 people.
(Contributed Photo)
So, how does a hockey player from this small of a town become a top prospect in the sport of hockey and earn a commitment to play at the Division I level? Plenty of hard work, and of course, miles on the odometer.
Even though many may not be very familiar with Moose Lake Area’s girls hockey team, that doesn’t mean that Hartl is an unfamiliar name in the State of Hockey over her past six seasons of competing with the Rebels. She has an impressive resume and became the primary starter for her squad as just an eighth grader during the Covid-19 pandemic season in 2020-21. She then started to put up eye-popping numbers the very next year as a freshman. Now, after finishing her senior season, Hartl posted a .940 save percentage and a 2.24 goals-against average for Moose Lake (11-15) in 2024-25 and was named a finalist for the annual Jori Jones Senior Goalie of the Year award.
Competing for a hockey team that is a co-op of multiple high schools (Hartl attends East Central, located in nearby Finlayson - population 315) in a non-metropolitan area of the state made it a bit of a challenge for Hartl to get the eyes of coaches and scouts to come and watch her games but she eventually started to get more exposure at Minnesota Hockey High Performance camps and USA Hockey select camps. That’s where she eventually met the goalie coach for Providence College this past summer and recruiting conversations picked up from there.
Hartl officially got an offer from the Friars and made a commitment to their women’s ice hockey program on Sept. 8, 2024.
“I’m extremely excited and grateful to announce my commitment to play Division 1 hockey and further my education at Providence College! Thank you to my family, coaches, friends, and teammates who have helped me reach this goal,” she posted to her Instagram page.
“It’s a small campus, so everything is just right in one place, and it felt like home in a way,” the netminder told Clean Sheet Hockey in an interview about why she chose Providence for her hockey future. “The coaches were so nice, they just made sure everything was okay, made me feel welcome, they wanted to get to know me. I met some of the players while I was touring there too and they were super, super nice.”
Although the campus of Providence provides more of a small-town feel compared to the hustle and bustle of the city surrounding the college, Hartl is excited for the chance to get to experience a completely new environment in Rhode Island this fall. It might be a little nerve-wracking (in a good way, according to Hartl) to go from being in a graduating class of about 50-60 other students at her high school to moving to a college campus with a total enrollment of over 4,000.
There will be a few other Minnesotans attending the college alongside Hartl though, including Minnetonka’s Lauren Mack - who will also be a freshman this fall, and others who are currently on the team which include Josie Lang (Stillwater), Dylan Berman (Deephaven), and graduating senior Lily Hendrikson (Edina).
(Contributed Photo / Youth Hockey Hub)
The Friars carried four goaltenders on its roster this past season including primary starter Hope Walinski alongside a supporting cast of Olivia Klunowski, Taya Currie and Avery Callison. Walinski, a senior, did not play any games in her freshman season so she likely has one more year of collegiate eligibility still. Currie, a sophomore, has entered the transfer portal, and Klunowski and Callison both have the option to return next season. Hartl is the only incoming recruit at the goaltender position.
Friars fans are getting a battle tested goaltender in Hartl, who played in five games this season where she faced fifty or more shots and she recently surpassed the 3000 varsity career saves marker this past December, too. She made a season high of 57 saves on 60 shots on Nov. 19 this season in a loss to Proctor/Hermantown, and one of her favorite memories of high school competition is a 52-save shutout victory against a highly-ranked Duluth Marshall team last year on Moose Lake’s senior night.
“I’m best at reading plays, just seeing it before it develops, getting to the puck right away,” the Askov native said about her strengths as a goaltender. “I’m a bigger goalie so I take up more net and I’m able to stay on angle.”
The 17-year-old is considering a major in Health Sciences at Providence on a possible track to do something in sports medicine. Hartl is currently a multi-sport athlete at her high school and she plays volleyball in addition to hockey. She’s involved in student council and National Honor Society as well. She’ll head out to Rhode Island for college in just a few short months.
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