Lou Orlando
Despite a dominant first period, the New York Sirens didn’t finish the job in the latest PWHL Takeover Tour game in Detroit on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-1 to the Montreal Victoire. Montreal scored three unanswered goals in the third period to complete an emphatic comeback win in the first nationally-televised PWHL game.
The Victoire improved to 46 points (12-4-2-5) and extended their point streak to 11 games (7-2-2-0). They sit two points shy of the Boston Fleet for first overall in the PWHL.
New York squandered an opportunity to gain ground on the fourth-place Toronto Sceptres after Boston defeated Toronto 4-0 on Friday. The Sirens remain four back of the Sceptres in the standings with 27 points (8-0-3-12) after dropping their fourth straight contest; each team has seven games left in the regular season.
Catherine Dubois led the third-period surge with two goals just 4:44 apart. Alternate captain Laura Stacey added some cushion, extending the lead just 49 seconds after Dubois’ second tally. Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens took care of the rest, allowing one goal or fewer for the 13th time this season.
Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne suffered her fourth straight loss despite a strong start, stopping Montreal’s first 17 shots. She finished with 26 saves on 29 attempts in her League-leading 22nd appearance of the season.
New York kept things quiet for Osborne in the opening frame, outshooting Montreal 11-2. Jade Downie-Landry recorded Montreal’s first shot on goal at 1:58, but the Victoire went 14:26 without another until Michigan native Shiann Darkangelo ended the dry spell at 16:24.
The Sirens carried a lead into the first intermission for the first time since March 8, thanks to Casey O’Brien’s sixth goal of the season. Jaime Bourbonnais’ one-timer trickled behind Desbiens, and O’Brien crashed the net to bury the loose puck at 9:09.
O’Brien extended her point streak to three games. The 2025 No. 3 overall pick leads all PWHL rookies with 16 points (six goals, 10 assists).
“I thought today was a different story than what the last few games have been for us,” coach Greg Fargo offered postgame. “We got a great start. I thought our first period was as good of a period as we’ve played.”
Montreal grabbed momentum in the second period, outshooting New York 15-7. The Sirens held the lead thanks to poised play from Osborne, who turned away Lina Ljungblom on a breakaway and denied Hayley Scamurra twice in succession. Desbiens was just as sharp, stopping O’Brien on a pair of breakaways.
New York nearly made it 2-0 at 7:54 when Kristin O’Neill deflected a point shot from Micah Zandee-Hart, but officials waved off the apparent goal for high-sticking after review.
The Victoire maintained their edge in the third period — only this time, it showed on the scoreboard.
Dubois tied things up at 1:54, capitalizing on a miscue by Sirens rookie Anna Bargman. The 2025 fifth-round pick (No. 33 overall) sent a cross-ice pass directly onto the stick of Victoire rookie Natalie Mlynkova, who quickly led the Montreal rush and dropped the puck back for Dubois in the high slot. Bargman then collided with Sirens forward Clair DeGeroge as Dubois took it wide to the left dot and fired a wrister above Osborne’s blocker.
Dubois gave Montreal its first lead of the day at 6:40 of the third, when a slick backhand feed from Darkangelo set up the 30-year-old for a one-touch shot through Osborne’s five-hole. Stacey promptly made it 3-1 at 7:29, redirecting a long shot from defender Kati Tabin.
The Victoire forecheck stifled any chance of a Sirens comeback. New York managed one shot after Montreal seized the lead — a Sarah Fillier wrister at 19:47 that snapped a 14:06 shotless stretch.
“Momentum is a funny thing,” reflected Fargo. “You get a little bit, and I think Montreal started to gain a little bit more as that second [period] closed off, and they carried it into the third in a good way. A couple mistakes hurt us.”
The Sirens lost for just the second time this season after scoring the first goal (6-0-0-2). New York’s points percentage dipped to .391, more than 50 percentage points below the fourth-place Sceptres (.449) and fifth-place Ottawa Charge (.455).
New York remained without rookie star Kristyna Kaltounkova, who missed her second straight game with an unspecified injury. The 2025 No. 1 overall pick is day to day.
Detroit native Elle Hartje accompanied Fillier and O’Brien in New York’s starting lineup in front of a 15,938 crowd at Little Caesars Arena. She won four of six face-offs and recorded a shot on goal in 15:15 of ice time.
“It’s been awesome being home. It’s a tough question to answer right now,” Hartje said postgame. “Obviously, it’s about the hockey, so not getting the ‘W’ is pretty disappointing, but it’s great to see Hockeytown showing out all the time.”
Sirens fall flat in third period against Victoire: Takeaways
New York flips script on first-period woes
The Sirens’ first-period struggles are well documented. New York entered Saturday with the most goals allowed in the opening frame (26) — further compounded by a minus-eight goal differential since the Olympic break.
They flipped the script against the Victoire behind a strong forecheck and dominant play from their top forward line of Fillier, Anne Cherkowski, and O’Brien.
“I don’t think we need to change anything,” O’Brien asserted at the first intermission.
That proved easier said than done. New York was outshot 27-13 in the final 40 minutes, with just six shots and three scoring chances in the third.
“Some of the parts of our game that we liked — just how we were managing the puck — as the game went on, we started to step away from that a little bit for one reason or another,” Fargo explained. “We’ve got to find a way to match and exceed that effort moving forward.”
Despite strong offensive pressure out of the gate, the Sirens failed to get a second tally past Desbiens, a leading PWHL Goalie of the Year candidate. New York looked visibly deflated when Dubois evened the score in the third and offered little resistance to the heavy Montreal forecheck.
“When we have a tough play or something that ends up in the back of your net, we’ve got to find a way to respond in those moments a little bit better, because bad things are going to happen,” Fargo stated. “We know that.”
Sirens still chasing ‘complete 60 minutes of hockey’
New York has a few pressing issues at the moment, but consistency is chief among them.
“I don’t think we’ve played a full 60 minutes of Sirens hockey in a long time,” O’Brien noted postgame. “And we know that if we do that, we’re going to pull out the wins.”
Whether it’s slow starts or late-game collapses, the end result is all too familiar lately. And at this stage of the season, the Sirens can’t afford to leave points on the table.
“I think the important thing for us is to stay connected to our game on a more consistent basis,” Fargo said. “Playing a complete game with great habits and great structure and great energy — that’s what it takes to win at this level. You can see the margins between winning and losing in the PWHL are really small.”
Even as the Sirens entered the Olympic break in a playoff spot, questions lingered about their consistency period to period, especially with such a young roster. Those concerns only amplified with this second-half skid.
“We’ve just got to put together a more complete 60 minutes of hockey with our habits and our details of our game,” Fargo continued. “The team’s working through this. They want to win. We all want to win, and it’s going to change for us. We’ve just got to stay the course with what we’re doing.”
New York doesn’t have much time to right the ship.
Do you get déjà vu?
The Sirens lost six of seven games out of the Olympic break, and nine of 10 dating back to Jan. 20. If this stretch feels oddly familiar, you’re not imagining things.
In 2024-25, the Sirens dropped nine consecutive games (0-0-3-6) from Jan. 31 to March 5. They finished the season dead last in the PWHL, missing the playoffs by seven points.
This year’s squad still has a chance to avoid that fate, but it’ll take a sharp turnaround to do so.
“Obviously, no one likes to lose, so not happy about that, but I don’t think anyone’s hopeless,” O’Brien asserted. “We all know what a great team we have.”
If the Sirens seek a spark to break out of this slump, they must find it on home ice. New York returns to Prudential Center on Wednesday to host the Minnesota Frost before a Saturday matchup against the Seattle Torrent in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd.
