For months, the Sirens had Saturday’s game at Madison Square Garden circled on their calendars.
They’ve talked about what this moment will mean for the franchise and what it’ll be like to play in front of thousands of fans in one of the world’s most iconic arenas. Walking around MSG this week in preparation for their game finally made this opportunity feel real.
“It’s crazy,” Sirens forward Sarah Fillier said. “There’s so much history here, and we’re all excited to be part of it.”
The Sirens are the centerpiece for what’s expected to be another historic night at the World’s Most Famous Arena on Saturday when more than 18,000 spectators are expected to file in for what’s believed to be the first women’s professional hockey game there.
The Sirens are set to face the Seattle Torrent, a team with plenty of familiar faces, including ex-Sirens Alex Carpenter and Corrine Schroeder.
The event has been billed as a sellout, and is expected to set a U.S. attendance record for women’s professional hockey — surpassing the Torrent’s record-setting crowd of 17,335 at Climate Pledge Arena in February in the afterglow of the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
The Sirens got a taste of MSG earlier in the week when they practiced on the ice ahead of Tuesday’s Rangers game against the Devils. The team rode the subway alongside commuters to Penn Station for practice.
Defender Jaime Bourbonnais said she felt like Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, who went viral a few years back for taking the subway to home games to avoid Toronto traffic.
Fillier said the whole experience felt like a movie.
“[It] felt like I was living a bit of a fake life, you know, getting to come play hockey in the heart of New York City,” Fillier said. “It’s cool. Even when you walk out and see Penn Station, it’s awesome.”
It got even better when the Sirens walked through the MSG Zamboni tunnel and saw their team logo on the Jumbotron and video rails around the arena.
Skating on the ice felt surreal. Throughout practice, players glanced up at the well-known concave ceiling.
On one end is a row of banners honoring Knicks legends and franchise milestones, including two NBA championship banners. The other end is where the Rangers are memorialized. Four Stanley Cup banners hang alongside those honoring Henrik Lundqvist, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Rod Gilbert, among others.
“It’s hard to put into words, really,” Sirens coach Greg Fargo said. “For us in the PWHL, we’ve been so fortunate to go to some great venues, unreal crowds and some other great buildings as well, but I don’t think there’s anything that compares to Madison Square Garden, you know? I think it’s in a category of its own, and to know just the history of what’s gone on here from hockey games and far beyond, it’s just another important milestone for women’s hockey to be here on Saturday night and for us to be able to showcase where our game’s at.”
Playing a game at MSG is especially meaningful for Bourbonnais, a Cornell product who envied the school’s men’s hockey team for getting to play there.
“It’s pretty cool to actually get to practice out here and to have a game sold out,” she said. “We know the crowd’s gonna be amazing, so I’m really looking forward to it. Definitely a dream come true.”
Maybe the change of scenery at Tuesday’s practice and the anticipation for this weekend was just what the Sirens needed to snap out of their funk.
The Sirens are in the midst of a playoff push after missing the postseason in each of their first two seasons.
The Sirens had spiraled to losses in nine of 10 games (on both sides of the Olympics break) before Wednesday’s thrilling overtime win, punctuated by Fillier’s hat trick.
They’re sixth in the standings with six games remaining, and were five points back of the fourth and final playoff spot going into Friday night.
Fillier believes the excitement leading up to Saturday, paired with a rowdy environment, should help the Sirens maintain their positive momentum.
“We’re going into every game needing three points,” Fillier said. “It’s getting pretty dire, coming down to these last games in the season. So I think it’s a great balance to be so excited about playing in a building like this, to maybe take your mind off a little bit of how much we need to win.”
