Grace Beer, in her junior year as the Dalhousie University women’s hockey goaltender, has propelled the Tigers to third place in Atlantic University Sport (AUS).
To this day, no Dalhousie women’s hockey player has ever won the AUS Most Valuable Player Award. Now in her third year, Beer is on pace to become the first Tiger to lift the award. No goaltender in the entirety of U SPORTS has made more saves than the Dal Tigers backstopper. In her rookie season she earned AUS Rookie of the Year and has progressively found a way to be better every year. At the end of January, Beer will fly to Italy where she will represent Hockey Canada at the 2025 Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) Winter Games.
Stay in the moment
When asked about her improvement this year, Beer said she remained focused on each year of her career being a new challenge.
“It’s basically stepping-stones each year to being better and everyone getting better,” Beer said.
The Tigers record has catapulted with Beer’s success as the year prior to Beer arriving they earned a 4-17 record and have since earned double digit winning seasons every year. This campaign they are on pace for their best ever season and sit third in their conference in points.
Beer has the third highest save percentage in U SPORTS and said her success this year has been a change in perspective.
“In first year I struggled a lot with just staying in the moment,” Beer said. “I feel like it’s not even game by game, it’s shot by shot.”
Beer has found meditation and visual realization a useful way for her to stay focused with the help from her mother who is a meditation practitioner.
“If you ask anybody of my teammates before a game they’ll probably say I look like a crazy person,” said Beer. “And honestly that [mindfulness] has helped a lot.”
Before every period the Dalhousie University women’s hockey coach attaches a GoPro camera to the glass behind Beer’s net. Head coach Keifer House said the team does this so Beer can watch footage in between periods if she gets scored on. This attention to detail is what he said separates Beer from the rest of goalies.
“Not worrying so much that she got scored against,” House said. “But how did it happen? Is it just something that happened or is there someway I could have played that situation better? I think that open mindedness and that growth mindset is a key contributor to her success.”
FISU 2025
Beer added another accolade to her repertoire in December when she was named to the team who will represent the best Canadian university women’s hockey has to offer at the FISU World University Games. The games are a prestigious event which features the best of each country’s university athletes in summer and winter sports.
Beer said she did not expect to be named to the roster and had it as a goal prior to the season. The netminder said she went through three lists which she said was nerve-racking and when she didn’t hear anything the day the short list came out she thought she was cut.
“I kind of accepted that I wasn’t on it,” Beer said. “But then I got an email and was like, ‘okay I’m still in the running,’ so it was kind of a mental challenge.”
House wasn’t surprised.
“When you look at the numbers and actually review the players, I can’t imagine there are three other players better than her playing at a high level,” House said.
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