Courtesy of the PWHL
The New York Sirens returned to the Prudential Center to take on the Minnesota Frost for the first time since the season opener when they earned the 4-3 overtime win on December 1.
After winning the home opener on Wednesday by a score of 4-2 over the Toronto Sceptres, the Sirens had now won three of their last four games and are currently the second best team in the PWHL. The only team above them in the standings? Sunday’s opponent, the Frost. Minnesota had won three straight coming into this matchup, outscoring their opponents 13-6.
The first period started off as a back and forth affair with New York peppering Nicole Hensley with shots, but Kendall Coyne-Schofield broke through to score on Minnesota’s first shot of the game putting the Frost up 1-0 early in the first. Both teams laid the pressure on throughout the rest of the period, but it was a funny sequence of events that led to the Frost going up 2-0. Goaltender Abbey Levy left her net to try and clear the puck out of New York’s zone. But, Coyne-Schofield caught the pass on the boards and scored her second goal of the game on the open net before Levy could get back.
Courtesy of the PWHL
Kayle Osborne replaced Levy to start the second to make her first PWHL appearance. Within the first minute of the period, Jessie Eldridge took a penalty for kneeing giving Minnesota a power play opportunity which they capitalized on as Taylor Heise scored her first of the season to make it 3-0. Less than a minute later, the Sirens responded with a gorgeous goal from Brooke Hobson to make the score 3-1 early in the second. Elle Hartje picked up her first PWHL point with the primary assist on Hobson’s goal as well.
The goals didn’t stop there as at 8:59 Elizabeth Giguere got a puck past Hensley to narrow Minnesota’s lead to just one goal. The Sirens completely took over the middle frame from there. They spent a majority of time in the offensive zone and were putting a consistent amount of pressure on the Frost. The buzzer sounded at the end of the second period with the score being 3-2 after New York battled back in the game.
The second intermission was fun for everyone in attendance as one of hockey’s best traditions took place: the teddy bear toss. Fans threw hundreds of stuffed animals onto the ice and all of them are going to be donated to the Animal Welfare Association.
The final 20 minutes started out with lots of penalties. After killing off the remainder of Micah Zandee-Hart’s second period penalty, New York got back-to-back power play opportunities as Britta Curl-Selamme and Denisa Krizova each visited the penalty box for two minutes. New York didn’t score on either of the advantages.
Courtesy of the PWHL
Just about halfway through the third, Alex Carpenter scored a beautiful, top-shelf goal that tied the game at 3-3. With that tally, she extended her season-opening point streak to five games with four goals and three assists in that span. The Sirens once again found another level and outshot the Frost 16-7 in the third, but regulation wasn’t enough to determine a winner of this contest once again.
New York had several stunning chances to end overtime but Hensley stood tall and stopped everything that came her way during the five minutes of 3-on-3 hockey. Because neither team scored in overtime, it was onto the shootout for the first time this season.
The shootout followed the rest of the game as it was still back and forth. Krizova and Grace Zumwinkle scored for Minnesota while Noora Tulus and Carpenter also scored for New York. The deciding shootout goal came down to Heise and she found the back of the net while Hensley stopped Abby Roque to secure the 4-3 shootout win for the Frost. With the victory, Minnesota holds onto first place in the PWHL, but it was a well played and entertaining contest between the two teams.
Osborne made 18 saves on 19 shots faced in her first PWHL appearance and was stellar for the Sirens throughout regulation and overtime, but she credited her team for her key performance.
“It's a credit to our team. We did a great job limiting their chances and keeping them on the outside so I think a lot of credit goes to our team. We played the game we wanted to for the last two periods so credit to the rest of the players in front of me because they did a great job and made my night pretty easy.” said Osborne when asked about how she handled such a high pressure situation and played well.
Even though the Sirens arguably deserved to win this game based on how they played and the overall effort the team put in against the toughest opponent in the league, it could easily affect their confidence going forward. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
“It happens. The score doesn’t reflect the way we played.” said Giguere. “Yes, we went down 3-0, whatever, but it also shows that we can come back. We don’t always want to do that, for sure, but I think we played a solid game overall. We had a lot more good moments than bad and I think we could have scored a lot of goals. Hensley made some good saves at the end and it just didn’t go our way. Proud of our team. I think it doesn’t affect our confidence, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and we’re just going to keep working towards a championship.”
The Sirens return to the ice on Sunday, December 29 to take on the Ottawa Charge at the Prudential Center with puck drop at 1 PM EST.
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