The New York Sirens came from behind to defeat the defending Walter Cup champion, Minnesota Frost 4-3 in overtime Wednesday at the Prudential Center in a game that meant a lot to the Sirens.
The Sirens came into Wednesday night’s home game having lost four of their last five games and six points out of the final playoff spot in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) standings with seven games left to play. Greg Fargo’s team needed this win and they staged a furious comeback in the third period to earn the two points.
The Sirens gave up the game’s first goal 16 seconds into the first period. Taylor Heise got into the offensive zone behind the Sirens’ defense and received a pass from Britta Curl-Salemme in the slot. Heise then wristed a shot between the pad and glove of Sirens’ goalie Callie Shanahan. The goal was assisted by Curl-Salemme and Lee Stecklein.
At 5:20, the Sirens tied the game when Clair DeGeorge made a centering pass from behind the Minnesota goal to Maddi Wheeler who scored high over the shoulder of Frost goalie, Maddie Rooney. The goal was assisted by DeGeorge, who earned her first point as a Siren, and Sarah Fillier. Between 10 and 12 minutes gone by in the first, the Sirens had back-t0-back power plays but couldn’t find a way through an active Minnesota penalty killing unit.
The Frost took the lead again at 4:07 into the second period on a power play goal from Grace Zumwinkle that was assisted by Abby Hustler and Curl-Salemme. Down 2-1 halfway through the game, the Sirens were looking for answers. Elle Hartje almost had the answer when she drove hard to the net with the puck and shot at Rooney. Then a Frost player slid into both of them and pushed Rooney into the net.
The play would be reviewed to see if the puck had crossed the goal-line and the officials would eventually announce that it didn’t.
The Frost’s Clair Butorac was called for slashing at 16:15 and this sent the Sirens to their third power play. Shortly after that, the Frost’s Brooke Becker illegally body checked a Sirens player, which gave the Sirens a 5-on-3. A little more than one minute into the 5-on-3, the Frost’s Peyton Anderson took a roughing penalty. The Sirens had two grade-A scoring chances on the power play. The Sirens’ Allyson Simpson took a shot from the backdoor that missed well wide of the net.
After Minnesota scored their third goal and made the score read 3-1 44 seconds into the third period, things looked bleak for the Sirens.
The Sirens took three consecutive penalties in the third period; the first, a tripping call against Nicole Vallario; the second, a holding call against Sirens’ captain Micah Zandee-Hart; the third, a hooking call against Fillier. However, the home team never gave up and they would claw their way back into the game thanks to some heroics fromFillier.
At 12:20 gone by in the third period, Fillier got out of the penalty box, intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and skated in on a breakaway. Fillier then deked to her backhand and lifted the puck over Rooney’s pad into the net to cut the deficit to one.
Just 14 seconds later, Maja Nylen-Persson took a shot from the point that Fillier deflected on net. Rooney saved the initial deflection but coughed up a rebound which Fillier smacked into the net to tie the game 3-3.
The two teams came out absolutely flying in overtime. The Frost got the first scoring chance when Britta Curl-Salemme skated around a Sirens defenseman and got to the front of the net. When she got there, however, Shanahan stayed with Curl-Salemme as she tried to wrap the puck around her pads and wouldn’t let the puck slip behind her.
At the other end of the ice, Cherkowski’s breakaway attempt for New York was stopped by Rooney. Taylor Heise then skated right at the Sirens’ net and attempted a shot that just missed over the crossbar.
The final tally came from Fillier, who buried a snap-shot from the slot 4:45 into overtime to complete a natural hat trick.
The Sirens snapped a four-game losing streak and will now take some momentum into their first game at Madison Square Garden Saturday against the Seattle Torrent. Coverage will be available on MSG2 starting at 8 pm.
