U.S. women’s hockey gold medal winner Caroline Harvey stood on the Chase Bridge inside Madison Square Garden, marveling at the scene that was taking place before her Saturday night.
A sold-out crowd of more than 18,000 fans was inside the World’s Most Famous Arena to watch a women’s hockey game between the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent, the first Professional Women’s Hockey League game at the venue. And the Sirens sent the raucous supporters home with a 2-1 win in the shootout to celebrate.
Sarah Fillier scored late in the third to tie the game and Maja Nylén Persson scored the winner in the shootout.
Saturday’s game encapsulated the growth women’s sports have seen over the past few years and women’s hockey has gone through since February when the American women’s team captured gold at the Winter Olympics. March drove a 25 percent year-over-year increase in average attendance, the league said.
For Sirens fan Victoria Brown, the evening touched her in a more personal way. Brown had played hockey until she was 12 and coached a high school girls team in Ithaca last year.
She said during a second-period conversation that it “would have been amazing” to have PWHL players to look up to when she was younger.
“These girls are always looking for other players to look up to,” Brown said. “They always talk about the NHL players, which the men’s players are amazing, but it’s also important to have a woman influencing you to look up to, like, for example, [Torrent star] Hilary Knight is here tonight. … Having that is something I dreamed of as a kid. I would like to buy a jersey that has a woman’s name on the back. I’ve always thought that. So that’s been huge just as a coach to see other young women looking up to other women.”
Harvey, who is projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 PWHL draft, was one of several distinguished women athletes who made the trip to MSG to see a new U.S. attendance record be set for women’s professional hockey.
Flau’jae Johnson helped drop the ceremonial first puck along with women’s sports icon Billie Jean King. American soccer star Kelley O’Hara was in the stands.
“Chills,” Harvey said, describing the night. “I’ve definitely been emotional at times. I feel like I caught myself tearing up. I’m like, ‘Wow.’ You dream of these moments as a little girl and now it’s finally here.”
It was hard to walk through the concourse Saturday night and not see fans of all ages wearing a teal Sirens jersey. And outside MSG, where it’s a common occurrence on game days to see red and blue Rangers jerseys meandering around, they were replaced by enthusiastic Sirens fans.
Madison Square Garden erupted in a fashion similar to that of a Rangers or Knicks playoff game when Fillier scored her ninth goal of the season with 3:35 left in the contest to tie the game at 1.
Anne Cherkowski nearly sent the Garden into rapture when she slipped a shot past Torrent goaltender Corinne Schroeder, but it was saved at the last moment by former Siren Alex Carpenter, who swatted the puck out of the crease before it crossed the line.
