The home stand continued for the New York Sirens as they hosted the Minnesota Frost in a Sunday matinee thriller.
In the crease for New York was Abigail Levy, making her first start of the season. Last season she was 1-5-2 posting a 3.07 GAA and .906 save percentage. For Minnesota it was Nicole Hensley whose last start was against New York in the season opener.
The Sirens came out hot in the first three minutes of the period leading to Hensley having to make key saves early on, keeping the scoreboard blank. Then the game changed in favor of the Frost when a bounce gave Kendall Coyne Schofield a fast break which turned into a five-hole goal. Ten minutes later Schofield found the back of the net again as Levy misplayed the puck straight to Schofield who easily scored on the wide-open net. Heading into the second period, New York found themselves in a 2-0 hole once again against Minnesota.
To start the second period, the Sirens made a change in net replacing Levy with Kayle Osborne making her first professional appearance. The 28th overall pick in the 2024 draft was tested early on as Jessie Eldridge was sent to the box 36 seconds into the period. Osborne couldn’t fend off the suffocating play of the Frost as Taylor Heise put one past her off the skate of a Sirens defender for a commanding 3-0 lead. New York wasn’t about to go down without a fight as they lit the lamp 42 seconds later. Fed a pass from Elle Hartje, Brooke Hobson wristed one past Hensley for her first of the season.
Six minutes later the Sirens got on the board again; this time it was Elizabeth Giguère who settled a bouncing puck and shot five hole from the side angle. New York’s penalty kill kept Minnesota off the board late in the period and life came back into the building at Prudential Center as the home team was down one going into the final 20.
Ten seconds into the third period, the Sirens got their first power play opportunity of the game and a chance to tie the game, but the strong penalty kill of the Frost showed just why they’ve allowed no goals in the last three games. Two minutes later New York was back on the man advantage, but Minnesota’s kill denied them once again. As the period went on both sides would get high-danger opportunities, but Osborne and Hensley stood tall in their creases. The ice was broken in the third period when Alex Carpenter sniped one top shelf to tie this game up at three. For the second straight game against the Frost, extra time would be needed to decide this one.
The overtime period was the Nicole Hensley show as New York peppered the shots on her. Eldridge and Roque both had opportunities on the breakaway to end the game, but Hensley stood tall. Her lights out performance in net is why this one went to a shootout. The Sirens couldn’t make the comeback as the Frost took the shootout 3-2.
At the postgame press conference, Sirens’ head coach Greg Fargo talked about the way his team started this game.
In some ways it wasn’t the start we wanted. Giving up a two-goal cushion to the other team, but in a lot of other ways I liked parts of our game in the first period. I thought we came out and controlled a good amount of the play, compared to our start at Minnesota to begin the year it was much improved. Couple of tough bounces there to be down and then have to claw our way back but there were a lot of good things from our start and I just thought our group did a real nice job to turn the page and get better as the game went on. – Sirens head coach Greg Fargo
Coach Fargo described the message he gave his players during the second intermission.
The message was really highlighting the things that we felt were in our favor. We liked our start. We were much better at blue lines tonight and making sure that pucks were getting out and pucks were getting in. You could start to see us string together a couple of really good shifts even though the scoreboard didn’t read in our favor, there were a lot of good things we were doing. We really shined a light on that. We felt good going into the second [period], then we give up a shorthanded goal but that’s the way it is. But again, I give credit to our team, we just kind of stuck with it and stuck with it and that’s what this team’s done game-to-game over the first five games and to be able to claw back from down 3-0, I’m proud of the group for that.
Sirens forward Elizabeth Giguère was named the third star of the game and after the game, she discussed what it was like to play in front of the home crowd at the Prudential Center.
These fans were pretty loud tonight especially when we go down 3-0. It’s not easy but I think it makes it a little easier being at home and you have some pretty loud fans. It was great to see everybody come out tonight and I think it made it a lot easier to play tonight and especially we want that to be the case moving forward with all of our home games. – Sirens Forward, Elizabeth Giguère
New York finishes its three game homestand next Sunday against the Ottawa Charge as they look to get back in the win column.
