New York Sirens' Regular Season Ends With 3-2 Loss to Montreal Victoire

Courtesy of the PWHL

Although the Sirens are not heading to the playoffs for the second straight year, the fans certainly showed out for the last regular season game at Prudential Center on May 3. The Sirens were taking on the Montreal Victoire, a team they defeated just once this season back on Dec. 4. Fans excitedly filled the arena seats and pressed up against the glass with supportive signs to show their appreciation for the team.

Montreal got on the board early as Marie-Philip Poulin scored just 11 seconds into the game to pick up her 18th goal of the season. Not even three minutes later, Catherine Dubois scored a gorgeous goal to lengthen the Victoire’s lead to 2-0 not even five minutes into the contest. Montreal got the first power play of the contest but didn’t capitalize on the opportunity. Towards the end of the period, New York got their first power play as Cayla Barnes received a two minute penalty for roughing after shoving Jessie Eldridge to the ice in a net front scrum. The first 20 minutes came to an end with the Victoire up by two.

Courtesy of the PWHL

28 seconds of New York’s power play carried into the second period but the Sirens didn’t score on the advantage. Montreal got two separate power play chances at the beginning of the second but also came up empty. The Sirens did lay on more pressure in the middle frame and played a decent amount of the 20 minutes in the offensive zone. Despite this, the Victoire broke through again as Poulin netted her second of the contest to make it 3-0. 

The Sirens came out strong in third and finally got on the board thanks to a goal from Sarah Fillier, who broke a career-long three game point drought with the tally. New York started peppering Ann-Renee Desbiens much more in the final frame as they outshot Montreal 16-8 through the third period. It wasn’t until the last minute of regulation when the Sirens found the back of the net again as Alex Carpenter scored, but it wasn’t enough for a full comeback.

The final score was 3-2 when the final buzzer sounded and the Sirens’ second full PWHL season officially came to an end. 

New York’s Ella Shelton, who led all defenders in goals this season, reflected on the PWHL’s second regular season coming to a close and pointed to a few different things that made this year different than last.

 “I guess having two years has been exciting, one to have a league in general for us to play and call that our nine-to-five every day,” Shelton said. “Having one home (venue) has been tremendous and this year we have been more able to focus just on the hockey side of things. A lot of the outside noise is kind of taking care of those growing pains…really now our focus is on this offseason and then hopefully really apply that (knowledge) into our third season.”

Shelton also noted that her favorite memory of the 2024-25 season was the Sirens’ crazy six-goal comeback win against the Charge on March 26. 

Thanks to the Sceptres going into overtime in their game with the Charge on Saturday, the Victoire secured the first seed in the league and earned the right to choose their playoff opponent. Poulin spoke on what she thought of the Victoire’s successful regular season as well. 

“It's never easy in this league—it's quite hard to play in it. It's going to be ups and downs, and it's how we're going to be able to get back up the next time. We did have a little rough patch a little bit ago, and that's part of it, and it's how we pull our sleeve up and go to battle and get back to work,” said Poulin. “Tonight, we wanted to get back up and finish first. We wanted that win, and we did. This group is never satisfied. You want to get better every day. You want to push the envelope, and that's the best part of it. And this group is hungry, and we're excited for the playoffs. Every time we have the chance to play back home at Place Bell, it's been very special, and we're pretty excited to start the playoffs at home, in front of our fans.”

The Sirens finished the 2024-25 regular season with a 8-4-5-13 record and are now looking forward to the 2025 PWHL Draft where yet another first overall pick should be in store for the team.