Lou Orlando
WEST ORANGE, N.J. — The New York Sirens aren’t going down quietly.
After losing nine of 10 games (1-0-2-7) from Jan. 20 to March 28, the Sirens responded with a flourish, rallying for back-to-back comeback wins (0-2-0-0) to climb within three points of the PWHL’s final playoff spot.
Sarah Fillier singlehandedly erased a two-goal deficit Wednesday, recording a natural hat trick in a 4-3 overtime win over the Minnesota Frost. Her clutch gene kicked in again Saturday night against the Seattle Torrent, when she buried the equalizer with 3:35 left in regulation.
Maja Nylen Persson scored in the fourth round of the shootout, and goalie Kayle Osborne denied Alex Carpenter to seal a 2-1 victory in front of 18,006 fans at Madison Square Garden.
In January, coach Greg Fargo turned to Nylen Persson during a shootout against Aerin Frankel and the Boston Fleet. The Swedish defender rewarded him immediately, besting the USA Olympian with a blistering wrister. She showcased her elite deception once again Saturday.
“I looked down at Maja, and she’s like, ‘Hey.’ I said, ‘You ready to go?’ and she just said, ‘Yep,'” Fargo recalled postgame. “And she was really confident with her answer, so I knew we were in for a treat.”
Nylen Persson shared her perspective after practice Wednesday.
“I just remember him asking me if I could take it, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I can take it.’ And I felt comfortable in what I’m going to do when I went out there,” the 25-year-old said. “As a person, I’m very calm, and I think that’s one of my strengths. And that helps me, especially in that situation.”
But even the unflappable Nylen Persson couldn’t ignore a raucous Garden crowd that set a U.S. professional women’s hockey attendance record.
“The whole game, it was so electric, and you can barely hear the whistle sometimes,” she said. “When you see it afterwards, and all the social media about it, like how big it was — it’s hard to take in how much it meant for us to get a win at MSG.”
Manhattan-native Casey O’Brien said it was the loudest she had ever heard Madison Square Garden.
“I said to my family after the game, I may never play in a game like that again,” the beaming rookie recounted Wednesday. “It was insane to be in a game where sometimes you can’t even hear the whistle being blown because of how loud the crowd is. It was so special. And I’m just so thankful to be able to get the opportunity to play in front of all those people.”
Still, it was back to business at practice this week. The Sirens are pushing for their first postseason berth in team history, but they’ll have to catch the fourth-place Toronto Sceptres (34 points) and fifth-place Ottawa Charge (33 points) to make it happen. With five games left, the margins are razor-thin, and every game looms large.
Top line buzzing at right time: ‘It’s all three of them’
Fargo shook up his forward lines on March 28, deploying Fillier and O’Brien alongside rookie forward Anne Cherkowski. They produced almost instantly.
Over New York’s last three games, the trio accounted for five of the team’s six goals and 10 of its 16 points.
“They’re coming on at a really good time for us. We’ve needed to lean on them for some offense, and they’ve been providing it here the last couple games,” Fargo said Wednesday. “They’re a dynamic group, and I think really tough to defend. It’s not just one weapon; it’s all three of them that you’ve got to worry about. I really like the way that they’re playing at both ends of the rink, but obviously have provided some great offense for us lately.”
“I think we’re all playmakers, and we all kind of have a similar IQ. And so even though our skill sets might not exactly be the same, they complement each other,” O’Brien explained. “The ideas are the same, the skills may be different, but everything comes together on the ice.”
It’s come at an important time, with two of New York’s top goal scorers — Taylor Girard and Krisytna Kaltounkova — on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
Fillier drove play last week, notching four goals in two games en route to PWHL Player of the Week honors. The reigning Rookie of the Year has eight goals and nine points in her last seven games; her 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) are tied for fourth-most in the League this season.
“What I see is just a little bit of jump in her step right now. Adding deception into everything that she’s doing. To me, that’s the sign of a really confident player who’s shooting the puck really well,” Fargo noted. “She’s really trying to lead this team into the playoffs. And you can see it. She’s pretty determined and hungry to do so.”
Don’t overlook the efforts of the rookies, though. O’Brien (No. 3 overall) is riding a five-game point streak, with seven points (one goal, six assists) in her last five outings. Cherkowski set up Fillier’s equalizer against Seattle and added another helper on O’Brien’s goal against Montreal.
“I think the fact Anne Cherkowski is playing her best hockey right now is a big catalyst on that line,” said Fargo. “Maybe the last three games or so, she’s elevated her play, playing with a lot more confidence.”
The No. 9 overall pick agreed.
“Yeah, definitely,” Cherkowski stated Tuesday. “I think it comes along with getting more time and experience in the League. I think it was a bit of an adjustment, but starting to find my place here.”
“I wouldn’t say that she’s never not had confidence. She’s a great player. She knows it,” O’Brien asserted. “We’re encouraging her to play her game and play to her full ability. But she’s been playing great all year, and I’m just happy that she’s finally getting the recognition for it.”
The Sirens will need more of the same down the stretch with a playoff berth on the line.
Nicole Vallario forming ‘really good pair’ with Lauren Bernard
Trading veteran defender Jincy Roese left a hole on New York’s bottom pair, and the Sirens are turning to rookie defender Nicole Vallario to fill it.
The 24-year-old Vallario — undrafted out of the Swiss Women’s League (SWHL) — appeared in just four games before a trade deadline swap for Frost forward Denisa Křížová. With Roese’s departure, Vallario joined Lauren Bernard on the third pair, averaging 11:15 of ice time across two games.
“Nicole’s been a great addition to our team, like since day one,” Fargo stated Wednesday. “There’s a consistency to her game that we really like. She doesn’t overcomplicate things. She’s a good puck mover. She can skate and defend. I think her and her and Lauren Bernard are a really good pair that see the game in the same way, so it makes it easy to play with her.”
Vallario spent most of 2025-26 on New York’s reserve roster, but started the season on the active roster as rookie defender Dayle Ross recovered from offseason surgery. She made her PWHL debut in the Sirens’ home opener on Nov. 29, opening the scoring with her first career goal just 4:08 into the first period.
“She made her mark right away,” Fargo lauded. “Just someone that I think over the course of the year, with how she’s gone about her work, she’s built a lot of trust with her teammates and her coaches, and we’re seeing her play really well.”
The flip side is an increasingly limited role for Ross. New York’s fourth-round pick (No. 25 overall) logged less than a minute against Montreal and Minnesota and was a healthy scratch for the first time all season on Saturday.
“It’s a little unfair,” Fargo explained. “When you have someone that comes back from the injury that she had, and you jump into it midseason — she’s a great player with a lot to offer our team, but when you’re rehabbing an injury in the offseason, it’s different than training and preparing for the year.”
Ross unknowingly played through a torn ACL during her senior season at St. Cloud State University in 2024-25, only getting surgery after a March MRI revealed the full extent of her injury. Ross made her PWHL debut on Jan. 6 and appeared in 14 straight games before Saturday, averaging 5:23 of ice time.
“There’s ups and downs throughout that return to play to try and get to your best. Dayle’s working through it,” Fargo continued. “If this was the start of the year and there was a little bit more runway, she’s probably playing a lot. But we’re in a playoff fight. Dayle’s been working hard to keep chipping away, but got room to grow.”
Sirens ‘trying to build momentum’ on power play
New York’s power play went 0-for-5 against Minnesota on Wednesday — including a squandered two-minute opportunity at 5-on-3 — prompting a blunt assessment from Fargo postgame.
“We’re going to dive into that. I think coming away, that’s probably the number one area to grow, just converting on our power play,” Fargo asserted. “We’ve got to find a way to be more threatening immediately and be ready to fire. A lot of perimeter play on that 5-on-3 that we’ve got to find an answer to, for sure.”
The Sirens looked more dangerous Saturday, but failed to score on two power plays against Seattle.
“Yeah, I thought it was better,” Fargo acknowledged Wednesday. “The first attempt, I thought we generated some good looks and some interior puck plays. There were a couple times where there’s just pucks laying there that didn’t go in, but I like the process.”
Power-play work took top priority at practice this week as the Sirens look to snap an 0-for-13 skid.
“With the power play, you talk a lot about trying to build momentum. You’re not going to score on every power play — I think the best one in the League is at 20 percent — but the power play’s got to generate some momentum for us,” Fargo stated. “And I thought the way they moved the puck around the other night, the way they got pucks back the other night — that was a step in the right direction. So we’re going to keep trying to build on that.”
