Alba Gonzalo (born 27 April 1997) is a Spanish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

and member of the Spanish national team, currently playing with

HV71 Dam HV71 are a professional ice hockey club in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Jönköping, in the southern Swedish province of Småland, at the Husqvarna Garden. History The club was originally formed independently in Ma ...

in the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League ( sv, Svenska damhockeyligan), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016– ...

(SDHL).

Career

Gonzalo grew up playing football and basketball in Barcelona. She began playing inline hockey at the age of six, eventually switching to ice hockey when she 16, after a new team was founded in the

Sant Adrià de Besòs Sant Adrià de Besòs () is a city and a municipality within the comarca of Barcelonès in Catalonia, north-eastern Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean coast, at the mouth of river Besòs, extending to both sides of the estuary although th ...

district. She originally disliked the sport and ran into issues with her first coach limiting her ice time because of her gender, but was advised by her mother to stick with it. In 2014,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

invited her to join their U18 ice hockey team and offered her occasional opportunities to train with the senior men's team. In 2016, she left Spain to play for KJT Haukat in Finland, seeking better opportunities to develop on the advice of her head coach. Playing for KJT, she received no salary and had to fund herself. After one year in Finland, she moved to Sweden to try out for

HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League s ...

in the SDHL. In her first season with the club, she only played seven games, originally serving as the team's third-string goalie before being promoted to the team's backup. Her first SDHL game was a 4-3 loss against

Modo Hockey Modo Hockey (or MoDo with uppercase letters) is a professional ice hockey club in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The team plays in Sweden's second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan. The club was founded in 1987 and has won one SHL championships; in 2007. ...

in mid-October 2017, with

Michela Cava Michela Cava (born March 26, 1994) is a Canadian ice hockey centre, currently playing in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) with PWHL Minnesota. Playing career Along with goaltender Danika Ranger, Cava is one of only two players to ...

being the first SDHL player to score against her, scoring a hat-trick. After one year in Sweden, she decided to return to Finland, signing with the

Espoo Blues The Espoo Blues were an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They played in Espoo, Finland, at the Espoo Metro Areena. The club went bankrupt at the end of the 2015–16 Liiga season. History The club was established in February 1984 as Kiekko-Espoo ...

. When HV71 starting goaltender Sabina Eriksson injured herself before the start of the 2018–19 season, however, Gonzalo returned to Sweden to take over as HV71's starter. She played 30 games that season, finishing with the fourth best GAA among all league goaltenders who played more than 10 games. She finished the

2019–20 SDHL season The 2019-20 SDHL Season was the 13th season of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). The season began in September 2019 and ended in February 2020. The playoffs began a week after the end of the regular season, but the finals were cancelled ...

with the most wins, most shutouts, and best

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

of any goaltender in the league.

International

Gonzalo debuted with the senior Spanish national team in 2014, playing her first match against Slovenia. She was named best goaltender as selected by the directorate at the 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship Division II B and 2018 IIHF Women's World Championship Division II B. Thanks in no small part to her stellar performance in net, the Spanish national team was able to earn promotion to the IIHF World Championship Division II A at the 2018 World Championship; she posted a

of 0.94 and a .954

save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various goal-scoring sports that track saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse, it is a statistic that represents the percentage of shots on goal ...

across the five games of the tournament.

Personal life

Gonzalo has named

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

goaltender

Carey Price Carey Price (born August 16, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is considered to be one of the best goaltenders in the world by many colleagues, fans, ''The ...

as a role model. She served as an athlete ambassador for the 10th BCN Sports Film Festival in Barcelona in June 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalo, Alba 1997 births Living people Spanish ice hockey players Women's ice hockey goaltenders Sportspeople from Barcelona HV71 (women) players Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Finland Spanish inline hockey players Expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Sportswomen from Catalonia