Women’s Hockey PlayoffPreview: SLU Vs. Yale
In the 2022-2023 season, the St. Lawrence Women’s Hockey Team finished 17-19-3. Although their ECAC record was slightly better with a 10-9-3 mark, the combination of the under .500 overall record and getting eliminated in the quarterfinal round left the Saints outside the NCAA tournament.
This year is a much different story. The Saints enter the ECAC playoffs boasting a 25-9-0 record and an 18-4-0 ECAC mark. The Skating Saints finished third in the conference, earning a bye week heading into the conference tournament. They will host the quarterfinal best-of-three round starting on March 1 against Yale University.
“We certainly have got a lot more consistent scoring,” said head coach Chris Wells as he thought about what has changed from last season to this. “We were able to get a couple of new players [Sarah Marchand ’25 and Mae Batherson] in with some experience. They had success on their previous team, and that has carried over to this year. We have a tremendous amount of experience at the collegiate level. To be able to get new players in and get a new look, we allowed them to hit the ground without difficulty, and the transition has been a big part of our success.”
St. Lawrence is led by Junior left wing Abby Hustler ’25 and Senior center Julia Gosling ’24. Hustler has 52 points on the year (24G, 28A), while Gosling has 48 (19G, 29A). Both are top six in the ECAC in points, goals and assists.
The Saints, who are winners of six in a row, were off last weekend as they await the winners of the first round matchups.
“We might do a little more high-intensity stuff, just missing that one game that they are all getting in,” said Gosling about what they did last weekend to prepare. “Jared (Hatz) and Coach Wells have been talking about our best plan forward heading into playoffs, but we will just have to continue to get consistent practices and lifts in the meantime. It has been working for us in the last 12 out of 13 games. We just need to stick to what we have been doing as a team and also have to get some days off so that our legs are ready to go for the playoffs.”
“We are just such a loose team, and we have created such a good environment where everyone comes to the rink,” Hustler said when speaking about the team chemistry. “When we are winning, it is easier to have that joy and energy around the rink. This group is so close to each other both at the rink and outside of that as well, so it has made it so much more special with that, too.”
The Scarlet and Brown are 17-1-0 this year at home, with the lone loss coming against the now third-ranked Clarkson Golden Knights. In that 3-0 loss, the Saints were without Gosling and defenseman Kristina Bahl ’24.
The season has not gone without any roadblocks, however, as the Saints hit a stretch of five losses in six games spanning from early November to the beginning of the New Year in January. This span included an 11-0 road loss at Ohio State followed by a 5-1 loss to the Buckeyes the following day.
“After Kristina Bahl got injured against RPI, our defensemen, who were playing 22-23 minutes per game, now had to play 28-29 minutes,” said Wells. “When Bahl wasn’t getting the minutes, we turned the task to the freshman, who now had a tall task. Those losses at that time of the year, without having the depth in terms of experience back on defense, were a big factor, but the Ohio State games were scheduled for precisely that reason to see where we are and where we need to be. Regardless of the scores, I loved the weekend even though we didn’t look very productive on the scoresheet, but sometimes you have to get down to the bottom of things in terms of some losses or maybe some games that don’t go so well to get yourself right back into things. But once you get into things again, you start to believe and start winning games, which is contagious.”
Since this stretch, the Saints have won 12 of 13 games, highlighted by home wins to sixth-ranked Cornell and third-ranked Colgate. The Saints will look to make their first NCAA tournament since the 2016-2017 season.
The power play has been a big part of their success. The Saint’s power play ranks third in the country at 32 percent, up from 16 percent last year. The defense and goaltending have also been spot-on. Danish goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordström boasts a .924 save percentage and has a 2.11 goals against average.
“I think a lot of people deserve recognition, even if they are not getting goals,” Gosling said. “A lot of those backchecks are huge, and Emma has come up big all year.”
The Saints’ mentality and chemistry are shown well on the ice. Even in the tough ECAC, where five teams are ranked inside of the top ten, the Saints are able to get pucks on the net, control the neutral zone well, and show good poise even when things aren’t going their way. This team has done tremendous work on the power play, winning puck battles against the board, getting the puck into the high-danger zone, and beating opposite netminders in all corners of the goal.
The Saints, with their experienced core, are well-rested and ready for the playoffs. The one-two punch of Hustler and Gosling is second to none in the conference. They will create havoc in the ECAC tournament and be a force to be reckoned with against any foe they face moving forward.