Building blocks for success: 2025-26 Women’s hockey preview
By Elliotte Baracas and Maggie Hsu, October 29 2025—
A disappointing 2024-25 season came to an end for the Dinos Women’s hockey team last February with a set of identical 3-1 losses in Vancouver to the Thunderbirds. Eight months later, the team is back in action with one goal: do better.
And so far, they’re off to a good start; they opened their season with a set of strong wins in Edmonton against the University of Alberta Pandas.
A common issue in university sports is the high rate of turnover – players coming in and out in four- to six-year chunks, putting teams on a time crunch as they try to find the right combination of players before players graduate. The result? A rare case of a set line of players dominating at any given time.
However, this year the Dinos have found themselves in one of these rare cases where their roster looks relatively similar to last year. What makes the difference this year is the time for a plethora of young players from last season, along with the contributions of two young goalies already making waves. There’s also the addition of defender Alex Spence, transferring over from Mount Royal University, who head coach Josh Gosling says he feels will contribute to the leadership.
“It’s a village mentality, and we’ve got a lot of young players that […] need to take a step, [and] some of our older players need to pull the rope,” said Gosling in an interview with the Gauntlet. The pressure is on the team as a whole to improve on last season. The goal isn’t just an improvement on the ice for the team this year. Gosling emphasized the importance of community, both on and off the ice. The loss of former captain Rebecca Clarke will impact the team, but Gosling doesn’t see it causing much of an issue.
“I think we can build off of what they left,” he said. “Our growth off the ice will hopefully show in the community side.” Part of that comes from Gosling himself – keeping a mindset of perpetual learning and fostering these values in his athletes. “It’s having that drive to continue to push the program to be [better] and learning from the people around me,” he explains. “We always want to be better.”
Although there aren’t many new players on the roster, two additions of note are first-year goalies Maisie Cope and Alyssa Barette. On Sept. 28, the team put up a 2-0 shutout against Team Alberta’s U18 Women’s team, with Cope in net. There’s marked competition in the Dinos’ net this season and in the years to come, which Gosling hopes will drive the play of all three goalies. Competition isn’t just important for the team’s netminders; it’s also an important part of the team culture. Last season, Gosling says the team “showed up every day to work”, and he hopes that mentality will carry over to this season.
“I think [the team] came ready. […] They had a great offseason,” he comments. Players putting in the work over the summer to come back stronger, faster and more determined is an essential part of improving the team. However, the responsibility doesn’t lie solely with the athletes. “We [the coaching staff] spent a lot of time in terms of preparation, looking at lots of video and figuring out where we can do better,” Gosling explains. Improvements on both sides of the bench are already showing with the team holding a 5-1 record through their exhibition games.
After a tough season like the Dinos had last year, improvement can be hard to come by. There’s a fine balance between building on positive takeaways and changing what didn’t work. This year, the Dinos seem set up for success with a young roster of players prepared and keen to keep growing and learning together, and the mindset to show up every day and compete. So far, the new season is going well — and with this determination and drive, it should keep them competitive with any team in Canada West and hopefully for many years to come.