The New York Sirens have played their 15th game out of 30 in the 2024-25 Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) season. For their second season in the league, let’s take a look at their performance so far at the halfway mark.
Who Leads the Sirens in Points?
Sarah Fillier was selected by the Sirens first overall in the 2024 PWHL Draft. She has been an incredible asset to the team. She currently leads the Sirens in both assists and points. She has ten assists and 15 points.
When it comes to goals scored, Alex Carpenter has her beat by one, leading the team with six goals. She is second in points with 12 total.
In terms of the league overall, Fillier is also on top of the leaderboards. She is tied with Hannah Miller of the Toronto Sceptres for second in points. She is third in assists in the league, as well. Taylor Heise and Claire Thompson, both of the Minnesota Frost, are in first and second, respectively. Heise has 12 while Thompson has 11. The race is very close!
How the Rest of the Sirens’ Rookies Are Performing
Fillier was not the only new player to the Sirens this season. The rest of her draft class consists of seven players who have all been pulling their weight.
A notable newbie to the team is Maja Nylen Persson. In terms of points, she sits at the seventh spot. Persson has one goal and four assists for a total of five points. She is one of three defensive players in the top seven rankings. Ella Shelton and Micah Zandee-Hart sit above her in fourth and sixth, respectively. Persson is often paired with Zandee-Hart on the first line of defense.
Allyson Simpson is another one of three defenders the team acquired in the draft. She has four points with one goal and three assists. There are two other players with four points on the team, one of which was also a part of the 2024 PWHL class: Elle Hartje. She has four assists in 12 games. Although the forward has yet to score her first goal, Hartje’s display of teamwork shows that she is working her way towards her first PWHL goal.
Related: PWHL Continues to Innovate the Game With New Rules
Further down the line, both Noora Tulus and Gabby Rosenthal have two points each. The pair have each recorded a goal and an assist, Rosenthal in 14 games and Tulus in 15. Tulus was selected in the third round of the draft and Rosenthal was selected in the fourth round.
Rounding out the 2024 draft class with the least amount of points is Emmy Fecteau with one point. She scored her first PWHL goal during the Sirens’ home opener on Dec. 18 against the Sceptres. Since then, she has been unable to repeat her success in the past eleven games. Hopefully, she can break this streak soon.
There is one more member of the 2024 class, but she has been unable to earn any points. Honestly, for good reason. Goalie Kayle Osborne was drafted in the fifth round by New York. So far this season, she has played four games. She only has one win under her belt, but it was a shutout victory against the Ottawa Charge on Jan. 24. Her current goals-against average (GAA) is 1.63, and she has earned a save percentage (SV%) of .944.
The Injury Bug Has Attacked New York
As mentioned above, Carpenter has been a huge help to the Sirens this season. But on Jan. 31, she sustained an upper-body injury against the Boston Fleet. There has been no word on her status. She has missed out on participating in the Rivalry Series at the beginning of the month. She has also missed out on the past two games with the Sirens. Both of those games ended in regulation losses for New York.
There is no denying Carpenter is a part of the Sirens’ success. Hopefully, she recovers soon and can help her team get back in the win column.
OT Winner Might Have Some Impact on Future Seasons
On Jan. 12, the Sirens hosted the Sceptres. The score was 0-0 after 60 minutes of regulation time, and the game went into overtime. Jessie Eldridge crossed over the blue line before the puck. She was able to get control of it and skate up to the Sceptres’ net. She took a shot and scored the only goal of the game with a little over a minute left in overtime.
It was made abundantly clear that Eldridge was offside before she gained control of the puck. The Sceptres challenged the goal for offsides, however, there is no rule in the PWHL handbook that says an offsides play warrants a video replay to challenge a goal. The goal was deemed good, and the Sirens took home the win.
After this goal, the PWHL board would be wise to look into changing the rules for the 2025-26 season. The PWHL has already implemented great rules, such as the jailbreak goal rule. If a team is serving a minor penalty, and they score a shorthanded goal, the player in the penalty box can spring free. The fact that they do not have an offsides rule yet is surprising. If this offsides rule had been implemented already, the outcome of the Jan. 12 game might have been much different.
The PWHL Standings Are Close
In the PWHL standings, the Sirens are in fourth place. The Fleet are in fifth place and the Ottawa Charge are below them in dead last. All three of these teams have a 20-point total, though.
The Sirens and the Fleet have the exact same record. In 15 games, both teams have recorded four regulation wins and six regulation losses. In overtime, they have both earned three wins and two losses. What sets the Sirens above the Fleet, however, is the amount of goals they have scored. They have scored 37 to the Fleet’s 35.
In 16 games, the Charge have recorded six regulation wins and eight regulation losses. They have yet to win a game in overtime, as the two games they did play in overtime resulted in losses.
Last season, the Sirens were the first team eliminated from the playoffs. The Charge were second. New York did not have a good first season, winning five regulation games and losing twelve. In overtime games, they won four and lost three. Their point total stood at 26 for the 2023-24 season.
With 15 more games to go, it seems likely that the Sirens will be able to beat their point total from last season. They are in a close fourth-place race at the moment, with the Sceptres above them in third place with 24 points. At this point, it is truly anyone’s game in the race for the fourth playoff spot.
Second Half of the Season Incoming
The Sirens will battle the top team in the league, the Montreal Victoire, for their 16th game of the season on Feb. 15.
