Torrent Put Together Their Best Game of the Season in Takeover Tour Win
Courtesy of the PWHL
There aren’t many “must win” games yet in the PWHL, but this could have been considered one for the New York Sirens as they were taking on the Seattle Torrent in Chicago for another Takeover Tour game. The Sirens came into this matchup with two straight losses, in which they had been outscored 9-5. New York has only one win in their last five games since returning from the Olympic break and has fallen out of a playoff spot. Injuries have hit the roster hard and in this one, the Sirens would be without rookie Kristýna Kaltounková as she is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and Maddi Wheeler who was away with a family matter. The Torrent entered this matchup with four consecutive losses and currently occupy the last place in the PWHL standings. While the playoffs seem out of reach for Seattle, New York still has a fighting chance and needs to start securing more points in order to make that dream a reality.
Both teams were quiet in the first half of the first period as they tried to establish some momentum. The Torrent struck first though thanks to a goal from Theresa Schafzahl at 10:33. Seattle didn’t stop there as Danielle Serdachny picked up her third tally of the season not even more minutes later to extend the lead to 2-0. Schafzahl and former Siren Alex Carpenter picked up the assists on that goal. Unfortunately for the Sirens, the scoring didn’t stop there. At 18:33, Jaime Bourbonnais went to the box for a tripping penalty and the Torrent immediately capitalized on the power play advantage thanks to Cayla Barnes netting her first goal of the year. New York headed into the first intermission down by three and had a lot of work to do in order to get back in this game.
The second period was quiet for both teams as neither found the back of the net, despite generating some great scoring chances. It wasn’t until 5:48 into the final frame that the Sirens got on the board thanks to Sarah Fillier’s fifth goal of the season. The Sirens had something to build from, but there wasn’t a late comeback in this game. Carpenter scored her ninth of the season exactly four minutes after Fillier to put the Torrent out to a 4-1 lead. New York didn’t give up as they outshot Seattle 12-6 in the third and 30-20 in the whole game, but they couldn’t solve former Siren Corrine Schroeder, who stood tall in her net through the entire 60 minutes.
The Sirens have fallen into a pattern of having slow first periods lately and having to constantly climb back into the game instead of taking the lead early. Peyton Levis acknowledged that when speaking on the team making a push for the playoffs. “We’ve proven to be a strong team. We need to bear down on our chances and be harder to play against in front of our net. We’ve been giving up early, easy goals and then spending the rest of the game climbing back, which is difficult to sustain. We need to focus on defensive details and be much harder to play against so teams don’t want to face us.”
The Sirens remain in sixth place in the league standings with 27 points and have just eight games remaining this season. The losses are starting to pile up and letting the crucial points slip away could be dangerous down the stretch as the teams on the outside looking in begin to do everything they can to make the postseason.
New York will be back in action on Saturday, March 28 when they take on the Montreal Victoire at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit for another Takeover Tour game. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 PM EDT. Seattle will head back home and welcome the Ottawa Charge to Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday, March 29. Puck drop for that game is scheduled for 7 PM EDT.