Hilary Knight wasn\u2019t surprised that Saturday\u2019s women\u2019s hockey game between the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent at Madison Square Garden was sold out. She also hopes it isn\u2019t the last time the PWHL is at the World\u2019s Most Famous Arena.<\/p>\n
A sold-out crowd of 18,006 fans shook the Garden as the Sirens defeated the Torrent 2-1 in a shootout, on a night when the final score was just a part of the story. Saturday\u2019s game encapsulated the growth women\u2019s sports have seen over the past few years, and women\u2019s hockey has gone through since February, when the American women\u2019s team captured gold at the Winter Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n
Sarah Fillier scored late in the third to tie the game, and Maja Nyl\u00e9n Persson scored the game-winning goal in the shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a testament to all the hard work that these players put in when the lights aren\u2019t bright and you get to see us on the brightest stage,\u201d Knight said after the game. \u201cYes, I\u2019m looking forward to more opportunities like this, [when] this is the norm. \u2026 I think for so long, we showed up in spaces that weren\u2019t necessarily created for us, and we\u2019re starting to see those spaces change, which is really exciting and encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Fillier #10 of the New York Sirens ties the score against the Seattle Torrent during the third period at Madison Square Garden on April 04, 2026 in New York City. The Sirens defeated the Torrent 2-1 in the shootout. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The game set a new U.S. attendance record for women\u2019s professional hockey and was another feather in the cap for the PWHL since the Olympics. March drove a 25 percent year-over-year increase in average attendance for the league, and it said that it saw a 101 percent increase in merchandise sales during the Olympic window.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game also helped inspire future generations of female hockey players and gave hope to those who grew up without the stars that currently make up the league.<\/p>\n
For Sirens fan Victoria Brown, the evening touched her in a more personal way. Brown had played hockey until she was 12 and coached a high school girls team in Ithaca last year.<\/p>\n
Kayle Osborne #82 and the New York Sirens celebrate their shootout win over the Seattle Torrent at a PWHL game at Madison Square Garden on April 04, 2026 in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Sirens rush out onto the ice to celebrate their shootout win over the Seattle Torrent. Getty Images<\/p>\n
She said during a second-period conversation that it \u201cwould have been amazing\u201d to have PWHL players to look up to when she was younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese girls are always looking for other players to look up to,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey always talk about the NHL players, which the men\u2019s players are amazing, but it\u2019s also important to have a woman influencing you to look up to, like, for example, [Torrent star] Hilary Knight is here tonight. \u2026 Having that is something I\u2019ve dreamed of as a kid. I would like to buy a jersey that has a woman\u2019s name on the back. I\u2019ve always thought that. So that\u2019s been huge just as a coach to see other young women looking up to other women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends Emily Sen, Sonya Derntl, Amy Eiferman and Tina Allen were just overcome by the scene.<\/p>\n
Sirens and the Seattle Torrent shake hands following their game at Madison Square Garden on April 04, 2026 in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s watching every move, everyone\u2019s rooting for everyone,\u201d Sen said. \u201cJust the pop of the crowd when they were introducing the players, it brought a tear to my eye. It\u2019s really amazing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was hard to walk through the concourse and not see fans of all ages wearing a teal Sirens jersey. And outside MSG, where it\u2019s a common occurrence on game days to see red and blue Rangers jerseys meandering around, they were replaced by enthusiastic Sirens fans.<\/p>\n
The Garden erupted in a fashion similar to that of a Rangers or Knicks playoff game when Fillier scored her ninth goal of the season with 3:35 left in the contest to tie the game at one.<\/p>\n
Anne Cherkowski nearly sent the Garden into rapture when she slipped a shot past Torrent goaltender Corinne Schroeder, but it was saved at the last moment by former Siren Alex Carpenter, who swatted the puck out of the crease before it crossed the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of all this, we just hope to inspire the next generation of PWHL players and continue to grow this league,\u201d Fillier said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hilary Knight wasn\u2019t surprised that Saturday\u2019s women\u2019s hockey game between the New York Sirens and Seattle Torrent at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,24233,56,24231,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-186652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-new-york-sirens","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-pwhl","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}