On December 29^th, 2024, the New York Sirens would host their final game of the calendar year against the Ottawa Charge. This is the first meeting between these two teams in 2024-25 season and is a great measuring stick for the two teams who finished at the bottom of the PWHL standings in the league’s inaugural season. From a high-level view through the opening 5 games of the season, the Sirens are much improved with a +3-goal differential and a 60% points percentage in the standings, where the Charge are continuing from where last season ended at a -5 and a 26.7% respectively. Alex Carpenter continues to be a force of nature for the Sirens with 7 points in the first 5 games of the season, and Tereza Vanišová has set the pace for the Charge with 5 points in the same number of contests. The most noteworthy matchup in today’s game is the first head-to-head game between 1^st overall pick Sarah Fillier (7 points in 5 games for NY) and 2^nd overall pick Danielle Serdachny (4 points in 5 games for OTT). In goal, the Sirens would go with Corinne Schroeder, while the Charge would start Emerance Maschmeyer.

               The opening 6 minutes of the opening period saw a wide-open north and south game that allowed both teams to have their chances in the offensive zone. As the pace increased in the fourth and fifth minutes, both teams had a pair of poorly executed outlet passes that led to high danger scoring chances on breakaways that were handled well by Schroeder and Maschmeyer respectively. Just past the 6^th minute, following a poor exit attempt from the Sirens, Kateřina Mrázová would set up a counterattack through Brianne Jenner that Emily Clark would be able to direct past Schroeder to get the Charge out to a 1-0 lead. New York would attempt to answer with a fast counterattack on the following faceoff, but Jade Downie-Landry and Ally Simpson were unable to get a pair of chances by Maschmeyer. The Sirens continued to apply pressure, leading to Ronja Savolainen taking the first penalty of the game for a hold, but the Sirens were unable to take advantage of the power play. Just passed the 13-minute mark, the Sirens attempted to get to clever in with their zone exits that led to a flurry of scoring chances for the Charge, but Schroeder stood tall once again. The Sirens would go back to the power play, and despite a pair of great looks for Alex Carpenter and Downie-Landry, New York was unable to bring the score back to even. The closing three minutes of the opening frame saw balanced possession for both teams in each other’s zones, but neither team could alter the scoreboard.

               The Sirens went on the power play within the opening minutes of the second period but were once again unable to generate any high danger chances. Within two minutes of the penalty’s conclusion, Gabby Rosenthal lost her balance in the New York crease and inadvertently took Schroeder out of the play. Shiann Darkangelo took advantage of the confusion to extend the Charge’s lead to two with a well placed shot from the wall in the confusion. Just before the seven-minute mark, the Charge were able to pressure the Sirens to sustain possession in the New York zone. The Charge ended up with a strong side overload with three players facing one defender in the zone as the Sirens got caught in no man’s land in the middle of their zone. Kateřina Mrázová would make them pay with an assist from Emily Clark to extend their lead to 3-0. Just before the midway point in the period, Schroeder made a fantastic blocker save against Brianne Jenner on a partial breakaway. However, Maschmeyer would match this heroic a minute later against a one-timer from Jaime Bourbonnais. Just past the twelfth minute mark of the frame, Ottawa had their first power play of the game but were unable to extend their lead. Immediately after the power play’s conclusion, New York had a great look on a two-on-one; however, Maschmeyer was phenomenal once again. In Ottawa’s counterattack, the Sirens were once again in a state of chaos leading to another power play as Gabby Rosenthal took a delay of game penalty. Ottawa applied great pressure on the power play, but were unable to score, but they extinguished their own power play with two seconds remaining with an unnecessary trip by Vanišová. New York had their most effective power play of the game in terms of chance generation, but they were once again unable to solve Maschmeyer, leading to the game heading into the second intermission at a margin of 3-0 in favor of Ottawa.

               Maschmeyer would hold her shutout until 23 seconds into the third period when Sarah Fillier would rip an unbelievable wrister past her in tight on her glove side (Hartje and Carpenter with the assists). Both teams traded blows for the three minutes that followed the goal, but Maschmeyer and Schroeder refused to cede another goal in the sequence. Just past the seven-minute mark, Hartje had a fantastic look in tight, but Maschmeyer once again rose to the occasion. After a 5+ minute stretch of whistle free back-and-forth play, New York would go back on the penalty kill for a Zandee-Hart trip in the neutral zone. Alex Carpenter had a good look on a partial breakaway at the end of the penalty kill but was unable to use the chance to draw the Sirens within one. The next several minutes were largely uneventful, leading to New York pulling Schroeder with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game. With 70 seconds left in the frame, Hartje had an incredible look down low, but Maschmeyer was unbelievable again keeping the puck out of the net. This would be New York’s last quality look of the game, as the Ottawa Charge would close out their 3-1 regulation victory.

               For the first time this season, and for those of you who have never read any of my recaps before, this last paragraph is where I give my key takeaways and narratives from the game and how the fit into the overarching growth of the league with the intention of starting dialogues and narratives of the stars of both today and tomorrow. The big one is that Emerance Maschmeyer is still one of the premier goalies in the world of women’s hockey, and even though Ottawa has struggled to establish itself in the same way as other teams in the PWHL, it’s evident that she is the face of the franchise and one of the biggest goaltending superstars in the league alongside Aerin Frankel in Boston. Secondly, it’s time that the league proper starts to acknowledge Kateřina Mrázová as one of the biggest offensive stars in the this league, I’ve been a big fan of Gabbie Hughes being the face of the Charge alongside Danielle Serdachny in the long term, but it’s clear that Mrázová’s among the top prime-aged forwards in the league and deserves to be in the same conversations as players like Laura Stacey, Sarah Nurse, and Darryl Watts who are massive drivers and draws in their respective PWHL markets, despite not being necessarily the face of the franchise. Finally, Alex Carpenter and Sarah Fillier have something special brewing for a New York team that needed a true secondary option behind Carpenter in the forward group after last season. However, Elle Hartje, who we had rated as the 10^th best NCAA prospect in this past draft, is rapidly showing signs that she could be a star player in this league, and one of the best third/fourth options in the entire PWHL.

Christian Bergeron

* Note that Laura Stacey’s name was originally incorrectly written as Lauren