For months, the Sirens had Saturday\u2019s game at Madison Square Garden circled on their calendars.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve talked about what this moment will mean for the franchise and what it\u2019ll be like to play in front of thousands of fans in one of the world\u2019s most iconic arenas. Walking around MSG this week in preparation for their game finally made this opportunity feel real.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Sirens forward Sarah Fillier said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much history here, and we\u2019re all excited to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sirens are the centerpiece for what\u2019s expected to be another historic night at the World\u2019s Most Famous Arena on Saturday when more than 18,000 spectators are expected to file in for what\u2019s believed to be the first women\u2019s professional hockey game there.<\/p>\n
The Sirens are set to face the Seattle Torrent, a team with plenty of familiar faces, including ex-Sirens Alex Carpenter and Corrine Schroeder.<\/p>\n
New York Sirens\u2019 Sarah Fillier (10) and Vancouver Goldeneyes\u2019 Sarah Nurse (20) vie for the puck during the first period of a PWHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. AP<\/p>\n
The event has been billed as a sellout, and is expected to set a U.S. attendance record for women\u2019s professional hockey \u2014 surpassing the Torrent\u2019s record-setting crowd of 17,335 at Climate Pledge Arena in February in the afterglow of the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.<\/p>\n
The Sirens got a taste of MSG earlier in the week when they practiced on the ice ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Rangers game against the Devils. The team rode the subway alongside commuters to Penn Station for practice.<\/p>\n
Defender Jaime Bourbonnais said she felt like Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, who went viral a few years back for taking the subway to home games to avoid Toronto traffic.<\/p>\n
Fillier said the whole experience felt like a movie.<\/p>\n
A general view inside Madison Square Garden during the game between the Colorado Avalanche and the New York Rangers on December 06, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] felt like I was living a bit of a fake life, you know, getting to come play hockey in the heart of New York City,\u201d Fillier said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool. Even when you walk out and see Penn Station, it\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
It got even better when the Sirens walked through the MSG Zamboni tunnel and saw their team logo on the Jumbotron and video rails around the arena.<\/p>\n
Skating on the ice felt surreal. Throughout practice, players glanced up at the well-known concave ceiling.<\/p>\n
On one end is a row of banners honoring Knicks legends and franchise milestones, including two NBA championship banners. The other end is where the Rangers are memorialized. Four Stanley Cup banners hang alongside those honoring Henrik Lundqvist, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Rod Gilbert, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words, really,\u201d Sirens coach Greg Fargo said. \u201cFor us in the PWHL, we\u2019ve been so fortunate to go to some great venues, unreal crowds and some other great buildings as well, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything that compares to Madison Square Garden, you know? I think it\u2019s in a category of its own, and to know just the history of what\u2019s gone on here from hockey games and far beyond, it\u2019s just another important milestone for women\u2019s hockey to be here on Saturday night and for us to be able to showcase where our game\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing a game at MSG is especially meaningful for Bourbonnais, a Cornell product who envied the school\u2019s men\u2019s hockey team for getting to play there.<\/p>\n
Sirens\u2019 Anna Bargman (22) celebrates after scoring on Vancouver Goldeneyes goaltender Kristen Campbell (50) as Madison Samoskevich (7) watches during the second period of a PWHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to actually get to practice out here and to have a game sold out,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know the crowd\u2019s gonna be amazing, so I\u2019m really looking forward to it. Definitely a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the change of scenery at Tuesday\u2019s practice and the anticipation for this weekend was just what the Sirens needed to snap out of their funk.<\/p>\n
The Sirens are in the midst of a playoff push after missing the postseason in each of their first two seasons.<\/p>\n
The Sirens had spiraled to losses in nine of 10 games (on both sides of the Olympics break) before Wednesday\u2019s thrilling overtime win, punctuated by Fillier\u2019s hat trick.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re sixth in the standings with six games remaining, and were five points back of the fourth and final playoff spot going into Friday night.<\/p>\n
Fillier believes the excitement leading up to Saturday, paired with a rowdy environment, should help the Sirens maintain their positive momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going into every game needing three points,\u201d Fillier said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting pretty dire, coming down to these last games in the season. So I think it\u2019s a great balance to be so excited about playing in a building like this, to maybe take your mind off a little bit of how much we need to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, the Sirens had Saturday\u2019s game at Madison Square Garden circled on their calendars. They\u2019ve talked about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,5788,3328,35,1766,5190,5193,4,1767,36,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-539837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-madison-square-garden","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-new-york-sirens","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkrangers","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-pwhl","17":"tag-rangers","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116344848791007079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}