College women's hockey: SLU banking on captain Gosling's positive energy
Sep. 21—CANTON — As St. Lawrence University women's hockey captain Julia Gosling rode on the team bus last Sunday, heading to Colgate for an exhibition game, the thought struck her that this was the first time she'd been a part of a Saints team right from the start of a season.
The junior forward is in her fourth year with SLU's program, but she's only played in 35 games so far.
She missed all of last season with the Canadian women's national team. She was not selected to play on the Olympic squad, but she was still with the team at the Olympics as a roster option if someone had come down with COVID-19.
As a freshman, Gosling, a native of London, Ontario, missed the first part of the season after suffering an injury before play began.
She played in 25 games and scored 10 goals with 11 assists.
In her sophomore season she was part of a Canadian national team tryout and didn't join SLU until the fourth game of a season shortened due to COVID-19.
She made an immediate impact, leading the Saints to their first win of the year with two goals and an assist in a 4-3 win over Quinnipiac. She went on to score seven goals with three assists in 10 games.
"It's fun being back playing games, being back with the whole team," Gosling said. "I think it's going to be a really fun year and I'm really excited."
Gosling, who was voted by her teammates to be the captain this season, came back to SLU late last season and was in the stands for some games and being as active a member of the squad as possible without actually playing.
"I knew I wasn't going to be playing for the year, so I kind of accepted it and was trying to just grow as a player watching and just try and support my teammates and be here for them and show that I still cared about them," Gosling said.
Though she has not played a full season yet, Gosling has made a positive impression on coach Chris Wells and her teammates.
"One of the things about her is her effort is there every single day," Wells said. "She has a smile on her face every single day. She brings a lot of positive energy and that's why she was voted captain."
Gosling's big numbers in limited games during her first part of her career have both her and Wells wondering what she can do with a full schedule.
"I'm excited to see where it will take me, where my team goes or how I do, hopefully it all works out for us," Gosling said. "I think we have great potential. We are striving to get a national championship. We started off not ranked at all so that's going to make us try to be better and make it to the top and prove to some teams we deserve to be up there too."
Seven ECAC Hockey teams were nationally ranked in the USCHO preseason poll. The Saints were not included and were picked to finish eighth in the preseason coaches poll.
With the return of Gosling, as well as Chinese team Olympians Anna Segedi and Taylor Lum, SLU's offense should be stronger this year to join a solid defense unit that includes ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year Lucy Morgan.
"Eighth is eighth," Wells said. "That's how strong the league is and obviously we'll be able to use that as motivation moving forward, like any team would."
Said Gosling of the preseason rankings, "We don't really care about that. We know our capabilities. Hopefully we can get to the top of the league. That's the only thing we care about."
One interesting aspect of the season for Gosling is her cousin, Nicole, is a defenseman at rival Clarkson University. Their dads are twin brothers.
"We'll talk about (in games), but not chirp each other too much," Gosling said. "Both our parents get to watch. It's fun playing against your family and she's on defense and I'm a forward so we are always battling against each other."
