Sandra Abstreiter

Sandra Abstreiter grew up in Freising, Germany, where ice time was not a given — a fact that would shape how she approached the sport for years to come. Born July 23, 1998, she didn't begin playing goal until she was 15 or 16 years old, having previously played defense. Without consistent access to a goalie coach, she turned to YouTube, studying footage not just of NHL goalies but of players she felt she could more closely relate to, picking apart glove positioning and save mechanics clip by clip. That self-directed approach to learning the position has stayed with her.

Abstreiter played college hockey at Providence, and in her final NCAA season she helped the Friars qualify for the 2021 NCAA National Tournament. She started in the quarterfinals against the University of Wisconsin Badgers — the eventual national champions — and made 41 saves in a 3-0 loss. Earlier in her career, she was part of the German squad that earned a silver medal at the 2015-16 U18 Women's World Championship.

On the international stage, Abstreiter has represented Germany at four Women's World Championships (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). At the 2024 tournament, she was named Top Goaltender, posting a .929 save percentage with one shutout over six games. Germany also qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics — their first Olympic appearance since Sochi in 2014 — a result Abstreiter described on ^[1] as "the most exciting thing I think I've ever been part of," adding: "It is even cooler that we did have to qualify and we did it. Because now, all of us that are most likely going to end up going to the Olympics, we did it for ourselves."

Abstreiter joined the PWHL's Montréal Victoire, where she wears number 30. Heading into her third year with the club, she acknowledged in ^[1] that she had appeared in approximately two games total across her first two seasons, describing a stated goal of playing a larger role: "I don't wanna be a third goalie, and I wanna be just a second goalie. I wanna make the step to become a first goalie in the league at some point."

One of her goalie partners in Montreal is Anne-Renée Desbiens. Abstreiter spoke about their dynamic on ^[1], noting that the two approach the position differently — Desbiens favors the RVH more heavily, while Abstreiter draws from a wider range of techniques depending on the situation — and that their exchanges are two-directional. "It's a two-way conversation, not a one-way conversation," she said. Between Montreal and the German national team, Abstreiter counts five goalie partners in total, all of whom she described as playing differently from one another.

Her approach to technique has been shaped by years of watching and analyzing footage, a habit she described in ^[1] as ongoing. She spoke about incorporating the "Panda" movement into her game over the past season, using the slower environment of the off-season to test and refine it. She also discussed the RVH, which she first spoke about adding to her toolkit in an earlier conversation and has since worked to place within a specific situational context rather than using it as a default. "I don't wanna overthink it," she said. "I just wanna have it somewhere in my brain, somewhere in my body movement options."

To prepare for the 2025-26 season and the Olympics, Abstreiter spent nearly two months in Vancouver during the summer — a deliberate choice given the lack of summer ice availability in Germany. "At home in Germany, we don't have ice everywhere," she explained in ^[2]. "Especially this year with me wanting to make another step into the league and with Olympics coming up, I wanted to be as best prepared as possible."

Abstreiter has spoken openly about how she arrived at her current mindset around pressure and performance. In ^[1], she traced it to a difficult stretch in college, playing in a competitive environment where starts were determined solely by recent results. "I was in a situation where kind of the goalie that performed kept playing," she said. "It was just a really hard environment because you were just scared to fail." She described a mental shift that followed — a realization, in her own words, that her life was not defined by how much she played or how well she performed on any given night. "I'm aware of the fact that I'm not just a hockey player, and I think that's really important," she said in ^[1]. That perspective, she has noted, extends to a longer-term view: she has expressed interest in goalie coaching after her playing career, saying she has enjoyed working with younger goalies whenever the opportunity has arisen.

Abstreiter also appeared on ^[3], an InGoal Radio episode alongside fellow PWHL goaltender Carly Jackson.

InGoal Magazine has covered Sandra Abstreiter in two podcast appearances and one InGoal article.