The New York Sirens playing the Montréal Victoire on Feb. 26, 2026.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
The PWHL is set to make history this weekend with a landmark game at Madison Square Garden.
The New York Sirens will take on the Seattle Torrent on Saturday night in front of what’s expected to be a record-breaking crowd. The game is sold-out and should set a new mark for largest attendance for a women’s hockey game in the United States. The current record is 17,335 at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, set on Feb. 28 earlier this year.
Madison Square Garden holds 18,006 fans for hockey and with no unsold tickets remaining, that should be the new record number after this weekend. The Sirens typically play at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, and their current record for largest home crowd is 8,264.
The iconic arena hosted a women’s hockey game in 2021, organized by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, although it was played without fans because of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The largest PWHL attendance ever came back in 2024 when PWHL Montreal hosted PWHL Toronto — the league had not yet given each team a name — in front of 21,105 fans at the Bell Centre, the most for a women’s hockey game ever.
Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Rangers, will host the New York Sirens this Saturday.Photo via Getty Images
It’s been a difficult season for the Sirens, who currently sit sixth in the PWHL standings, only above the expansion Vancouver Goldeneyes and Torrent. Forward Sarah Fillier, who led the team with 29 points in 30 games last year, is also pacing the Sirens so far this season with 19 points in 23 contests, good for fourth-best leaguewide.
The Sirens are sixth-place leaguewide, but their playoff hopes are still alive. Picking up a victory over the last-place Torrent in front of a sold-out crowd would be a great help on their way to that goal.
The PWHL continues to grow in popularity and size. The league recently had its first national broadcast, showing the game between the Victoire and the Sirens on March 28 across the nation, marking another major milestone.
The sold-out game on April 4 at Madison Square Garden isn’t the only big event coming up on the PWHL schedule. The Boston Fleet will take on the Victoire at TD Garden on April 11. The arena, home to the NHL’s Boston Bruins, holds more than 17,800 fans and is already sold-out.
The PWHL added two teams before this season, in Seattle and Vancouver, and has plans to expand past their current eight teams before next year. League executive Amy Scheer confirmed they’re looking to add two-to-four teams before next year, growing the league at a rapid year-over-year rate.