Lou Orlando
West Orange, N.J. — New York Sirens star forward Sarah Fillier is in the midst of an unprecedented goalscoring drought.
Fillier scored her first goal of 2025-26 just three games into the season, jamming in a rebound against Vancouver Goldeneyes goalie Kristen Campbell in New York’s 5-1 home opener win on Nov. 29. Shockingly, that remains her only tally of her second PWHL campaign as the calendar flips to March.
The Georgetown, Ontario, native set the PWHL sphere ablaze in 2024-25, racking up 13 goals and 29 points en-route to Rookie of the Year honors. She tied future Hall of Famer Hilary Knight in League scoring and ranked fourth overall in goals.
Fillier has no issue racking up points in 2025-26. With 17 games under her belt, she sits one point shy of leading New York in scoring; her 10 assists trail Minnesota Frost forward Taylor Heise (13) for the League lead.
It just hasn’t translated to putting pucks in the net. Fillier’s 1.7 shooting percentage ranks dead last among any PWHL skater with at least one goal this season.
Fillier failed to record a goal in either of New York’s first two games out of the Olympic break. Her goalless streak sits at 14 consecutive games — the longest such streak of her hockey career dating back to her freshman season at Princeton University in 2018-19.
From Jan. 25 to Feb. 19 of her PWHL rookie campaign, Fillier went eight straight games without a goal; the Sirens were 1-0-1-6 in that stretch, though Fillier still notched seven assists. She never went more than five games without a goal during a decorated tenure at Princeton that spanned four seasons and 120 games.
“There’s no sense of anybody hitting the panic button or anything like that — including herself,” Sirens coach Greg Fargo asserted in late January. “I think she’s played great.”
The eye test certainly doesn’t depict a player who’s pressing for offense. Fillier has easily been New York’s top playmaker and a consistent source of scoring chances in the offensive zone. She’s tied for seventh overall in Dom Luszczyszyn’s PWHL skater model in net rating (plus-4.5) and offensive rating (plus-3.8).
“Yeah, definitely not panicking,” Fillier stated Tuesday. “Setting other players up to score is a big part of my game. Just trying to leave every game with a win. And if that’s passing the puck instead of scoring a goal, it’s fine.”
Rookie phenom Kristyna Kaltounkova helped pick up the slack amid Fillier’s shooting slump. The 2025 No. 1 overall pick leads all PWHL skaters with 11 goals in 18 games, and ranks second in the League with 75 shots on goal. No. 3 overall pick Casey O’Brien is tied for second on the team with five tallies; three were assisted by Fillier.
She recorded seven assists over her past seven games, including a pair of multi-point outings against the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge. Fillier hasn’t shied away from continuing to shoot the puck, either; She recorded a career-high nine shots on goal against the Boston Fleet in New York’s final game before the Olympic break on Jan. 28.
“I think for Sarah — has it been an adjustment? Yeah,” said Fargo. “She’s got different line mates. She’s had different line mates throughout the year. We’ve changed her lines a lot, and that takes some time and adjustment.”
USA Olympic center Alex Carpenter departed for the expansion Seattle Torrent, leaving Fillier without her top linemate from 2024-25. Fillier’s seen a rotating crew of forwards on her line in 2025-26, ranging from Team Canada teammate Kristin O’Neill and third-year Sirens forward Paetyn Levis to rookies Kaltounkova, O’Brien, and Anne Cherkowski.
“So the fact that she’s getting chances is great,” Fargo noted. “And the fact that she’s creating and in different ways, I think, is great.”
Fillier breaks down playing center versus wing: ‘It’s two different types of games’
In terms of adjustments, rotating linemates is just the tip of the iceberg for Fillier. Five games into the 2025-26 season, Fargo slid the crafty winger to center, lengthening New York’s lineup down the middle.
It may not be new ground for Fillier, who frequently played center at Princeton, but it’s a new look for the 25-year-old professionally. Fillier primarily slotted in on Carpenter’s wing during her stellar rookie PWHL campaign; she also played wing for Team Canada at the international level.
“She’s playing center for the first time [in the PWHL],” Fargo said in January. “That means you’re getting different pucks at different times. The tendencies of your game are different as a center versus a winger. We’ve seen her kind of focus in on some of her more defensive habits that lead to more offense.”
Fillier doesn’t believe the switch significantly impacted her approach in the offensive zone.
“I don’t think so,” Fillier said Tuesday. “Once you get over the red line, there’s no true positions, I feel like.”
But she did acknowledge that each position comes with its own nuances.
“Playing wing, I can use my exit game a bit more. Usually leaving the zone with the puck, I can isolate D’s, or have a two-on-two with the other wing that I’m playing with, which is, I feel like, a good part of my game,” Fillier explained. “And playing center, I feel like I can get the puck in the middle with speed. So it’s just two different types of games, but at this point in the season, you just want to play anywhere in the lineup that we can get three points every night.”
New York could certainly use the points in the standings. The Sirens extended their losing streak to a season-worst five games Thursday with a 1-0 loss to the Boston Fleet at Prudential Center. The Ottawa Charge jumped into fourth place Wednesday night, leaving the Sirens outside of a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 2.
“Where I’m focused on with my attention is not any kind of streak — just day to day, how we’re approaching our business,” Fargo said postgame. “I think we continue to get better, and that’s going to be the case moving forward.”
For the time being, Fargo seems content to leave Fillier at wing. Recent evidence suggests that he’s wise to do so.
Fillier thrived on the wing during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in February. Goal scoring was notably not an issue for the PWHL All-Star, who finished second on Canada with six points and tied the team lead in goals (three), helping her country grab a silver medal. She was an integral part of Canada’s most effective line at this year’s Games, playing alongside Toronto Sceptres forward Daryl Watts and Team Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
Now she’s looking to carry that shooting touch back into the PWHL for the second half of the season.
“I think it’s just a product of being in a really high-level environment for a month and a half,” Fillier reflected. “No matter who you are in that lineup, and whatever country you play on, I think everyone comes back with an elevated style of play just because the demands are so high going into the Olympics. The stakes are high. The pressure is high. You’re performing at your best. So I think it only makes sense that you come back and want to raise the level of your game.”
According to Fargo, the decision to return Fillier to the wing had little to do with her international success.
“Sarah and I have talked a lot over the season so far about wing and center, and we’re still working through some different combinations,” Fargo stated last Thursday after a 4-1 loss to the Victoire. “I think one of the factors is we got almost everybody back. We’ve been without a few familiar faces prior to the break. It was great to have a lineup that was healthy, and wanted to just give some other things a look here early on.”
Cherkowski (non-hockey medical procedure) and Taylor Girard (suspension) returned to the lineup last Thursday against Montreal, restoring the Sirens forward group to full strength for the first time since Jan. 18.
It’s in Fargo’s best interest to put Fillier in the best position to generate offensively. New York’s exciting rookie class injected life into a flailing team culture, but the Sirens’ offense still relies heavily on Fillier as a puck-mover and a shot creator. The Sirens will find a postseason berth hard to come by if Fillier isn’t making her mark on the offensive end.
“I just know that I want to contribute more offensively,” Fillier stated. “So in this back half, it’d be nice to get a few.”
If Fillier’s proved anything over the past five years, those goals will come sooner rather than later.
