The New York Sirens came into their first meeting of the 2025-26 season with the defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost looking to extend a team record four-game winning streak.
That ended on Hispanic Heritage Night Friday night at the Prudential Center on Frost captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield’s league-leading ninth goal of the season, less than one minute into overtime.
The defending champions scored first in the opening period when Osborne left the crease to play the puck and passed to Heise below the goal-line. Heise then passed to Britta Curl-Salemme who fired the puck into the open net 8:55 into the game.
Just under 14 minutes gone by, 2024 first overall draft pick Sarah Fillier was tripped by Mae Batherson. With 26 seconds left in the Siren power play, Maddi Wheeler took an ill-advised penalty for cross-checking.
Despite having the job of killing the league’s second-best power play, Sirens 2025 third-overall draft pick Casey O’Brien scored a jail-break goal on a semi-breakaway to tie the game at 16:24.
The Frost answered back just 35 seconds into the second period, when alternate captain Kelly Pannek scored, assisted by Grace Zumwinkle and Coyne-Schofield. Four minutes passed and the Sirens again leveled the score in front of their home crowd. This time, Taylor Girard skated with the puck in from the blue line and ripped a wrist shot and off the post and in. Girard’s fifth goal of the season was assisted by Sirens captain Micah Zandee-Hart and ranks second on the team this season.
The third period would prove no less exciting than the previous two. Two minutes into the third period, Jaime Bourbonnais took a hooking penalty, sending the Greg Fargo’s team to their second kill but they managed to hold the fort.
With 12 minutes left to play, the Frost’s captain rushed the puck into the offensive zone and with a Sirens defenseman controlling the gap, Coyne-Schofield whisked a wrist shot that produced a big rebound. She then beat the Sirens defenseman to the loose puck and flipped a high backhand that threatened to go over Osborne’s head but the Sirens netminder managed to reach up and squeeze the puck to keep the game tied.
Six minutes later, the Sirens had a golden opportunity to take their first lead of the game. Kristýna Kaltounková picked up the puck at the offensive blue line and skated towards the goal. When a Frost player caught up to her, she made a backhand pass over to O’Brien who picked up the pass and ripped a wrist shot to the far side that rang off the post.
Despite the Sirens’ maintaining offensive zone time in the last few minutes, O’Brien hitting the post would be their best scoring chance for the rest of the game. The visitors got the game-winning goal when a Sirens turnover allowed Taylor Heise to skate the puck in on a 2-on-1 and pass to Coyne-Schofield who finished at the backdoor.
New York snapped its winning streak but will take a five-game point streak into Sunday’s Takeover Tour game against Montreal in Washington D.C.
