West Orange, NJ- After a long off-season, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) New York Sirens are back on the ice for the 2025-26 season.
For the first of two preseason scrimmages, the Sirens hosted the defending two-time champion Minnesota Frost Thursday afternoon at Essex County Codey Arena, and fell 5-2. The teams also played a mock overtime and shootout as additional practice for the week’s official training camp.
Behind a hat trick by Sarah Fillier, New York secured the split with Minnesota in Friday’s match at 6-2. The win should be a confidence booster for the team into the upcoming practice weeks ahead of the season opener against Vancouver on Nov. 29.
Entering the league’s third year, as one of the original six, the Sirens are hungry following last place seedings in both seasons thus far. Two crucial pieces to that puzzle will be the first and third overall picks in this year’s draft class, Kristýna Kaltounková and Casey O’Brien (via TOR), respectively.
These Sirens forwards will quickly become reliable assets to this rebuilding squad. Kaltounková concluded her NCAA career as Colgate’s all-time leading goal scorer (111) and second in career points (233). And from Wisconsin hockey, O’Brien is coming off a National Championship title and program record — having recorded the most points of any Badger in a season in the school’s history with 88 (26G, 62A).
“Stay patient, trust the process, and believe in our team”: Those are the keys for this Sirens’ group to achieving their goals and reaching new heights this season, according to Kaltounková.
“We’re a young, fast team, so I think the highlights of [Thursday’s scrimmage] all came from hunting pucks, being really aggressive [,and] using our speed,” said O’Brien. “The more we do that, the more turnovers we cause and the more offense we create.”
In anticipation of the first official game of the season at the end of the month, the scrimmages against the Frost served as the first outings for this new Sirens team — and the first ever professional hockey games in the rookies’ careers.
“I think the biggest thing is the physicality,” said O’Brien, on her biggest takeaway from her first game as a Siren. “Obviously in college you can’t be finishing your hits, but it was nice to just get our feet wet and see what the league is like today.”
Kaltounková reciprocated that the physical component, as well as speed, stood out to her at this level — but not in a way that’s intimidating.
“It’s fast and it’s physical, and I really enjoy that,” she said. “Just being aware, keep[ing] your head up, but I think I’ve been preparing for that on and off the ice — because there’s a lot of off-ice stuff that goes into that too.”
Although currently sidelined with an injury, Dayle Ross, rookie defender and St. Cloud alumnus, is also experiencing a positive transition and welcome to the team.
“Everyone is super mature, super energetic, and obviously the atmosphere is really good,” said Ross.
While the recent league expansion will make earning a spot in the playoffs even harder, experiencing great success at the NCAA level only adds to the fuel that these rookies bring to the mix for attaining more this year as a young collective.
Once their chemistry builds with time, there’s no stopping the Sirens — a team whose rising confidence and obvious talent is becoming impossible to ignore.
“Creating family off the ice is a huge thing. Once everybody in the locker room… has bought into the same goals, it makes everything on the ice so much easier and I think we’re already off to a great start here,” O’Brien said.
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