In 2024, Canada is bringing its oldest roster it has ever brought to the IIHF Women’s World Championships. With an average age over 28, there are only four players on the roster who are not playing in the PWHL. Out of those four, two were centralized for the Olympic team in 2022. One is Sarah Fillier, who has played more World Championship and Olympic games for Canada under the age of 23 than anyone not named Marie-Philip Poulin. The other is Julia Gosling.
Gosling was the youngest player to be centralized in 2022, but only made her official senior national team debut earlier this season in the Rivalry Series. She will be playing in her first major tournament for Canada at the 2024 World Championship.
“[I’m looking forward to] experiencing this with this special group of girls,” Gosling said. “We have a great team and I’ll learn a lot.”
She says that centralization helped get to know and make her comfortable around the veterans on the national team and building those relationships but it also helped her develop as a player.
“I was learning new things all the time playing against the best players in the world every day on the ice so it only made me better and work harder and knowing what I needed to work on to be at that level,” she said. “I used it throughout college to build confidence and work on the things that I needed to and now I made the Worlds team so it must have paid off and I feel like I’ve earned my spot to be here,” she said.
In Canada’s pre-tournament game against Finland, she had a goal and an assist from the team’s fourth line with Kristin O’Neill and Jennifer Gardiner. The goal was her first with the senior national team.
“I give a lot of credit to my line mates,” Gosling said. “We were rolling this game. [The puck] happened to pop in the slot and I got my first goal so I think it just builds some confidence for me knowing I can score at this level and to keep building on it.”
“I thought O’Neill was a good anchor for two younger players,” said Canada head coach Troy Ryan. “Julia has obviously played a little bit with us. They were playing the right way. They kept reloading above pucks so they were always in Finland’s way when they were trying to transition to offence, so I was happy with the energy they provided.”
To make the moment more special, a few minutes after she scored her first goal for Canada, her cousin Nicole scored her first senior national team goal.
“It’s super special,” Julia said. “If I had to picture both of us scoring our first goals, I don’t think I would have pictured it [happening in the same game]. I had a feeling she’d get one after I scored one because it happens a lot in college. It’s a special moment for our families and they were both here watching.”
Julia plays at St. Lawrence University and Nicole, a defender, plays at Clarkson which are both rivals in the ECAC. Julia finished fifth in ECAC scoring and sixth in points-per-game with 22 goals and 29 assists in 37 games. It was her fourth year of eligibility because she skipped a year in 2021-22 being centralized with Team Canada. She has the option of returning for a fifth year or declaring for the PWHL Draft.
Gosling, listed at 5’10”, is among the tallest players on Team Canada, the same height as Natalie Spooner and Laura Stacey. Her vision on the ice is noticeably at a high level and she got some time on the team’s power play playing the net front.
It isn’t easy for youngsters to break into the Canadian national team with a veteran core so established, especially at forward. Gosling will be battling for a spot with fellow ECAC player Danielle Serdachny and both will likely be between the fourth line and 13th forward, depending on the health status of others. In the team’s exhibition game against Finland, Serdachny did not dress and Jamie Lee Rattray played centre on the team’s top line, a spot held for Poulin.
With an added confidence boost from the pre-tournament and a solid college season, Gosling is poised to make the most of her opportunity.
The IIHF Women’s Worlds gets underway on April 3, but Canada’s opener against Finland will be April 4. All tournament games will be broadcast on TSN in Canada. RDS will also be broadcasting Team Canada’s games and the medal round.
