“Saved the best for last” is the saying that best captures the New York Sirens home opener at the Prudential Center on Wednesday, December 18. The Sirens were the only team in the PWHL who hadn’t played on home ice yet and there could not have been any more excitement about the team’s first contest at their new permanent home in New Jersey.
The Sirens were facing off against the Toronto Sceptres for the first time this season and came into this matchup with a lot of positives. Four of the top five point leaders in the PWHL are members of the Sirens with rookie phenom and 2024 first overall pick Sarah Fillier leading the way with six points in three games. Alex Carpenter (5 PTS), Jessie Eldridge (4 PTS) and Micah Zandee-Hart (4 PTS) rank second, fourth and fifth respectively. Even better for the Sirens is that they are 1-1-0-1 on the season which puts them as the third best team in the league with only the Minnesota Frost and Boston Fleet ahead of them.
Although Toronto dominated this matchup last season going 4-1-0-0, the team is struggling a bit to start the 2024-25 campaign. After winning their season opener at home on November 30, the Sceptres have dropped their last two games coming into Wednesday’s contest and have been outscored 9-5 in that span so the team was looking to get back in the win column when they came to The Rock.
After an incredible introduction for the 2024-25 Sirens roster, the crowd erupted in cheers and the puck was officially dropped on the Sirens home opener. New York dominated early on putting shots on net and playing a majority of the game in the offensive zone. Corinne Schroeder made several showstopping saves to keep the game scoreless and received loud applause from the crowd each time. But on the other end of the ice, Kristen Campbell also stood strong in her net and stopped everything that came her way. The first period came to an end with the same score that was on the board when play started, 0-0.
The Sirens came out just as strong to begin the second period with a flurry of shots and great looks on Campbell. Just 2:57 into the middle frame, Noora Tulus received a fantastic pass from Alex Carpenter and scored her first PWHL goal to give New York the 1-0 lead. Carpenter and Fillier both extended their season-opening point streaks to four games with the helpers on Tulus’ goal. Not even five minutes later, the Sirens capitalized on another great chance but this time it was Emmy Fecteau who found the back of the net for her first PWHL goal.
The floodgates seemed to have opened for New York as just a mere 55 seconds later, captain Micah Zandee-Hart scored her first career goal as well on the power play to extend the lead to 3-0. Zandee-Hart also extended her season-opening point streak with the tally as well. Towards the end of the period, the Sceptres were dealt two different penalties (two minutes to Maggie Connors for Interference, two minutes to Blayre Thurnbull for tripping) and the Sirens did not hesitate to take advantage of the 5-on-3. Jamie Bourbannais scored her first goal of the season to put the home team up 4-0 by the end of the second.
The Sceptres made a goaltending change to start the third, putting Raygan Kirk in net to get her first taste of PWHL game play. Toronto came out strong for the final frame and they were rewarded with a goal when Hannah Miller got the puck behind Schroeder to avoid being shutout. It started to get chippy early in the third and after several penalties were handed out, the Sirens ended up with a 4-on-3 advantage but couldn’t capitalize on it. The rest of the third was quite chippy as several players got involved in various scrums and roughing penalties were handed out left and right.
The 4-1 score held until there was about 30 seconds left to play and Emma Woods scored her first of the season to cut New York’s lead to two. When the buzzer sounded seconds later, it became official that the Sirens had earned their first win on home ice this season. The crowd rose to cheer and applaud the team as Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York” filled the arena.
Schroeder, Zandee-Hart and Tulus were named the three stars of the night due to their outstanding individual performances in the team’s victory.
“They made a big difference for us.” Fecteau said of the crowd at Prudential Center. “They were on fire, we could hear them from the bench and they were really loud. We’re grateful to have such good fans.”
On a night full of firsts for a handful of players on New York’s roster, Zandee-Hart and Fecteau noted how great it felt for both of them to score their first career goals while crediting the team as a whole for the win.
“It feels good, obviously. It took me a bit longer than it took Emmy, but it feels good.” said Zandee-Hart. “For just the team in general to score four like that in the second period, that was a huge momentum swing for us and I feel like that gave us a ton of confidence. It was fun to be a part of.”
“Before the game, me and Jade [Downie-Landry] were talking about how it would be fun if my first goal was in the home opening Prudential Center game and finally, we did it! She got an assist on my goal so it was pretty fun. We’re good friends and we’re roommates so it’s really nice.” said Fecteau about scoring her first PWHL goal.
The New York Sirens return to the ice on Sunday, December 22 to take on the Minnesota Frost at the Prudential Center at 12 pm EST.
All photos courtesy of New York Sirens (@PWHL_NewYork on X).
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