Scholar in the Crease: Dalhousie Goaltender Turns Passion into Pioneering Research

Jasmine is making a name for herself in the research world. Her undergraduate honours thesis, completed in April 2025, tackled a topic few have explored: the biomechanics of goaltender glove positioning during simulated gameplay. The project, titled Ice Hockey Goaltender Performance Analysis: Understanding Glove Positioning during Simulated Gameplay, was conducted in Dalhousie’s Biomechanics, Ergonomics, and Neuroscience (BEN) Lab, where she used 3D motion capture and synthetic ice to analyze how perceived fatigue and league-identified gender affected the goaltender's stance.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the precision of goaltending.” says. Kwan. “It’s a game of inches, and I wanted to understand what happens to those inches under pressure.”

As a kinesiology student and active member of the Dalhousie women’s hockey team, she brought firsthand experience to her research. She also coaches minor hockey goalies during the school year, which helped shape her focus on performance and coaching methodology. After conducting a literature review, she discovered a major gap: most goaltending instruction is based on subjective observation rather than data.

Her honours supervisor, Dr. Kathleen MacLean, specializes in upper extremity biomechanics, which helped guide the study toward glove positioning. Using reflective markers and high-speed cameras, Jasmine tracked goalies through short and long movement trials to simulate fatigue—like a penalty kill scenario—and compared their positioning to their optimal stance.

“The data collection was my favourite part,” she says. “We built the protocol from scratch, and seeing it come together with participants who shared my curiosity was unforgettable.”

Now pursuing her master’s under Dr. Ryan Frayne, she’s expanding the research using electromyography (EMG) to study muscle activation in goaltenders. She plans to resubmit ethics approval to repeat the study on real ice, addressing questions about how lab conditions compare to game environments.

Her work has already been showcased at conferences like APES+ and the Canadian Strength & Conditioning Conference, and she’s preparing the honours thesis for publication in a sports science journal.

Beyond the academic accolades, her research has practical implications for teammates and coaches. “If players understand how fatigue affects goalies, they can use that tactically,” she explains. “And for strength and conditioning coaches, this data can help design programs that mitigate those effects.”

Though she hasn’t conducted research directly for CCM, she’s assisted a PhD student working with the company and admires their commitment to evidence-based equipment design. “They’re asking the same questions I’ve always wondered about,” she says. “It’s exciting to see that alignment.”

Whether she’s making glove saves or scripting data analysis, Jasmine is proving that the crease isn’t just a place to defend—it’s a place to discover.