Alex Carpenter scored twice, including the overtime winner, with Sarah Fillier assisting on both as the New York Sirens erased a two goal lead to spoil Minnesota's banner raising night.
Alex Carpenter scored twice, including the overtime winner, with Sarah Fillier assisting on both as the New York Sirens erased a two goal lead to spoil Minnesota's banner raising night.
The Minnesota Frost celebrated with the Walter Cup one final time before puck drop at their 2024-25 PWHL home opener, and watched their championship banner raised to the roof of St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center. When the game was over however, the 8,022 fans on hand were stunned into silence as the New York Sirens erased a two goal lead winning 4-3 in overtime.
Carpenter scored twice in the game, both with assist from first overall pick Sarah Fillier.
“We’ve had some pre-season games while trying not to get frustrated," said Carpenter of playing with Fillier. "This is the first time we’ve ever really played together, so we’ve slowly learned what can really happen in the first game here, and it’s something great.”
Minnesota came out of the gate hot before New York found their way. Only 21 seconds into the game, Grace Zumwinkle took a cross slot feed and ripped a one-timer through Sirens netminder Corinne Schroeder who was strong all night for the visiting team to make it 1-0. Minnesota continued their bombardment of the New York net throughout the first with Kendall Coyne Schofield banging home her first of the season cleaning up a rebound off a Claire Thompson point shot to make it 2-0. Minnesota finished the first period outshooting New York 15-3.
“In the first period, I don’t think we found the shots that we wanted to find, but we had a tough time getting it out of our end at first," said New York head coach Greg Fargo. "We just felt we needed to encourage our group to kind of settle into our game. As a collective, we were able to take a deep breath there after the first and I thought we responded well in the second and went from there.”
In the second, New York started to created chances. On the power play midway through the game Jessie Eldridge fired a shot from the point that beat Nicole Hensley cleanly to cut Minnesota's lead in half. Three minutes later Minnesota product and PWHL rookie Gabby Rosenthal snuck a shot short side through Hensley to even the game at 2-2, which is how things would stand heading to the third.
The third period saw more back and forth action than the previous frames. Breaking free of a checker down the left wing boards Sarah Fillier drove the zone with Alex Carpenter on a two-on-one sending a perfect saucer pass over the defender and onto the tape of Carpenter who finished to give New York their first lead of the game 4:35 into the third.
With time ticking away, however, Minnesota answered with Klara Hymlarova forcing a turnover off the stick of Ally Simpson. Denisa Krizova picked up the puck finding rookie Dominique Petrie in the slot who let a quick release shot got freezing Schroeder to make it 3-3.
Schroeder stopped 35 shots in regulation, and wouldn't have to face another in overtime. When the puck dropped on the extra frame, Fillier corralled the puck regrouping across her own blueline before skating through Minnesota's line of Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Lee Stecklein drawing all eyes to her down the right wing. It left Carpenter wide open in the slot where Fillier found her and Carpenter easily picked her spot to score her second of the game, and the overtime winner for New York's 4-3 victory.