Sarah Fillier was the hero for the New York Sirens, scoring the game tying goal and getting a shootout point, to beat the Seattle Torrent 2-1 in come from behind fashion at Madison Square Garden. It was the perfect ending to a historic day, with a record 18,006 in attendance.
“Yeah, I think as a group like we wanted to get one for this crowd and be able to hear everyone erupt,” Fillier said postgame. “There’s nothing like scoring a goal in your home building in front of thousands of fans [and] a sold out crowd. So we wanted it bad for us, but also for everybody who came and watched us tonight, but yeah, I thought we stick to our game plan. We knew it was coming in between the second and third we were in our locker room saying, ‘you know, it’s coming. Don’t change a thing.’ We’re gonna generate some sort of grade A chance to get one. And it was a great play by Cher [Anne Cherkowski] to hit me backside.”
Despite the Yankees playing in the nearby Bronx, this was by far the hottest ticket in town. Coming into today the game had a lot of hype around it and expectations were overly exceeded. Fans came from far and wide to gather together at the world’s most famous arena to watch their beloved Sirens take the ice.
It’s safe to say neither team will have trouble trying to sleep tonight. The first period had a lot of back and fourth hockey as both teams struggled to score. While the chances were there and it could’ve easily been 5-5, neither side could get past the goalie no matter what they did.
When there was finally some action in the game, of course it wasn’t a goal. With under three minutes left in the period and during the middle of gameplay, a scuffle broke out on the other side of the rink with multiple players involved. It led to a list of penalties that included a five-minute major and Sirens’ forward Emily Fecteau being ejected for her hit to the head on Seattle’s Mikyla Grant-Mentis. The others included a 10-minute game misconduct and both the Sirens Kayla Vespa and Torrent’s Aneta Tejlarová were called for roughing.
The first goal of the game came just over two minutes into the second when Danielle Serdachny made a beautiful pass to Alex Carpenter who hit a one timer in front of the net, getting it past goalie Kayle Osborne. After receiving a roaring ovation pregame from the New York faithful, the former Siren got one past her old team.
It was as if both teams were allergic to scoring. Despite multiple chances, neither were able to score. As time went by and more and more opportunities failed, you got the feeling the fans were getting anxious as they were patiently waiting to explode.
They finally got their wish with under four minutes left in the game when Sarah Fillier was at the right place at the right time, getting a pass from Anne Cherkowski to tap it in past Corinne Schroeder. After scoring a hat trick on Wednesday against Minnesota, she once again delivered, sending The Garden into a frenzy.
It was now a dog fight. Both teams battled, not giving up an edge. However, a winner couldn’t be decided in regulation which resulted in overtime. Even in overtime, nobody could get one in. After the Sirens took 39 shots in the game and the Torrent took 21, neither was good enough for the win, and thus a shootout was on to declare the winner.
New York scored first and it was Fillier again coming in clutch. Seattle responded right away on the next attempt when Carpenter scored to tie it. Sure enough, the two skaters who had a goal in the game were back at it putting their teams on their backs.
After some failed attempts, Maja Nylén Persson ended the streak to put the Sirens up 2-1. Next up was Carpenter, who had the final chance to extend the shootout. It was right out of a novel. Playing against her former team, it was up to her to keep her new squad alive in sudden death fashion. She skated up the ice, took a quick wrist shot, directly into the body of the goalie Osborne, and it was over. After trailing late, the Sirens ended up stealing one from the Torrent, with 18,000 fans watching.
“It brings on a lot of different emotions, obviously. You see how engaged the fan base was tonight, how excited they were about women’s hockey here, and then to see how much it meant to our players to not just be in the game, but to perform their best in front of this kind of crowd,” Sirens head coach Greg Fargo said. “You know, not gonna lie, I think everyone was excited, but there was a healthy amount of nerves, too, and understandable, and I think, really just for them wanting them to soak up all of it, you know, the excitement, the nerves, but be present tonight and I think, you know, for our group to be able to experience what they experience tonight and also come up with the result that we want, I don’t think this night could have gone much better.”
The main narrative of today’s game was of course playing at Madison Square Garden and breaking the attendance record in the United States for women’s hockey. Besides the fans showing up, key figures like Billie Jean King, Robin Roberts, and many professional athletes were there to show their support. I asked goalie Kayle Osborne what that meant to them:
“It means the world; like you just can’t put it into words to have all those people show up for us tonight and show their support for not only the Sirens, but women’s hockey. I think it’s just a huge step for us and for everyone who plays, and young girls that watch. I think it’s just a huge step to see all those people supporting here tonight.”
The Sirens are set to face the Sceptres in Toronto next Saturday and the Torrent will travel to Montréal to face the Victoire Tuesday night.
