A Night With The New York Sirens

Featured Image: Photo by Bella Sagarese / Icon Sportswire

The train rattles into the 34th Street station, wind tearing down the platform as the doors snap open. Commuters pour out in a blur, coffee clutched tight, eyes flickering between screens and the path ahead. Then, something cuts through the noise along the tiled walls. 

The New York Sirens loom, making their advertisements feel alive. Players are caught frozen in motion, helmets on, and sticks raised. Their eyes are locked forward, unblinking, meeting the gaze of anyone who dares to look. 

Step above ground, and the city won’t let you forget. At bus shelters along Eighth Avenue, in New Jersey Transit corridors, the team’s signature turquoise, navy, white, and orange cut through the gray of concrete. It all builds excitement towards Saturday, April 4, as the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) gets ready to shatter the U.S attendance record for a pro women’s hockey game, with the Sirens taking on the Seattle Torrent in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,006 at Madison Square Garden

With the PWHL up 17 percent in attendance, drawing more than 450,000 fans through 61 games, the Sirens stand out in a league where just 36 players are publicly out. With four openly out players on the team, three of whom GO sat down with, a sold-out, record-setting game isn’t just about numbers. It’s a powerful show of support and visibility in women’s hockey, of the players reshaping what the sport looks like, and the fans who have supported them along the way.

For Micah Zandee-Hart, the first and only captain in Sirens’ history, leading the team on the ice is a surreal experience. “I’m just really excited for us to have this opportunity. It’s gonna be special,” the Canadian defender said. In the 2024-2025 season, she led the league in play by averaging 26 minutes per game. So far this season, she’s appeared in every game and has contributed three assists. Off the ice, she enjoys exploring new coffee shops around the city and is in the early stages of writing a book about her life, adding chapters that reflect the unexpected moments that have shaped her career. But come Saturday, she’ll be listening to “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” by Lainey Wilson as part of her pregame routine. “I think the New York fanbase is gonna love what we have to offer on the ice.” 

Also hailing from Canada, assistant captain Jaime Bourbonnais has watched the buzz around women’s hockey build with each season. She’s embraced a hybrid role this season, blending reliable defense with an active offensive game, tallying 9 assists and 10 points in 22 games. Bourbonnais has spent her whole life immersed in the sport, growing up in a family of hockey players and idolizing Canadian star Cassie Campbell-Pascall. “I loved my first two seasons playing for the Sirens, but this year it’s just been another level of excitement. You can tell that fans are super into it,” she said. 

The Sirens have forged a tight-knit connection through team-building activities like a book club, where they just finished reading Project Hail Mary, or pre-game hype sessions led by teammate Allyson Simpson, who gets the locker room energized as the team’s unofficial DJ. With a dynamic mix of rookies and seasoned veterans, they’ve prioritized building chemistry since day one — an effort strengthened by familiar connections, such as Zandee-Hart and Bourbonnais, who also played together at Cornell University and with Team Canada in international competitions.

“We ended up getting a lot of young players. So for the leaders on the team and the vets, we had to make sure these young players feel comfortable to be themselves right off the top,” said Zandee-Hart. “It’s something I think we’ve done so far in the first half, and we’re just continuing to grow into it in the second half.”

This season, the rookies have made an immediate impact for the Sirens. Forward Sarah Fillier recently set a record for the fastest two goals by the same player and became the first player in PWHL history to complete a hat trick with an overtime winner, while 2025 third-overall draft pick Casey O’Brien has also contributed offensively up front, co-leading the team with 18 points. Kristýna “Kalty” Kaltounková, the first-overall draft pick this season, has quickly emerged as a force both in New York and on the international stage, where she scored her first Olympic goal for Team Czechia just 90 seconds into the second game of the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

“Stepping on the ice at the Olympics was an incredible honor every game. I felt the strong support from our fans, which was awesome, but it made it even more special to have my family and close friends in the stands for the first game, and also all the other games,” Kaltounková reflected. “I think it is important to learn from every experience and take things with me moving forward. While the Olympics were for sure another amazing learning experience and fun opportunity, to me, the work with the Sirens does not change much. It means no matter what, going out there and giving it my all, in games and practices, making myself and hopefully my teammates better.” 

Kaltounková has grown fond of the city, particularly its skyline, a quiet contrast to the whirlwind of a season in which the Sirens faced a challenging stretch. Sitting sixth in an eight-team league, they’ve stayed competitive with 55 goals scored, battling to recapture their early-season form and stay in the playoff race, fueled every step of the way by unwavering fan support.

The PWHL has built a passionate, fast-growing fanbase, energized by the visible presence of queer players and inclusive traditions. For LGBTQ+ supporters, it’s a space where they feel seen, celebrated, and at home, a level of acceptance many fans say is rare in other sports environments. New York Sirens fans, also known as the “Pizza Rats,” have brought homemade signs that say “LET’S GO LESBIANS,” and humorously depict Bourbonnais and her partner of four years, Emily Clark of Ottawa Charge, on posters inspired by the Canadian hockey romance television series Heated Rivalry. They’ve also coordinated chants throughout games, like “Wee woo Wee woo” and “Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy! Oi Oi Ois!” 

Living rooms, bars, and local venues across the city have hosted Sirens watch parties, turning spaces into mini rinks of their own. In February, Henrietta Hudson held a watch party hosted by Women’s Sports Rally, a social club founded by Caroline FitzGerald that celebrates women’s sports, builds fan communities, and amplifies their social and economic impact. As the Sirens faced off against Montréal Victoire, attendees got to enjoy free pizza, a Queer Kiss Cam photobooth, specialty cocktails, raffles for game tickets, and celebrated with some players from the New York Exiles, New York’s professional women’s rugby team, creating a night full of laughter and solidarity across women’s sports. It’s this kind of support that carries over onto the ice, fueling the players every game.

“Being a queer athlete has helped me not worry much about what other people think, although my parents would say I have had that in me before realizing my sexual orientation,” said Kaltounková. “I think being at peace and happy with my sexuality makes me a strong human being, not afraid to show who I truly am, even if it means some people may not like that.”

For many of the players on the Sirens, that personal sense of identity carries into a larger responsibility to uplift lovers. 

“Everybody deserves to feel accepted and deserves to feel comfortable in their own identity. We’re lucky that in women’s hockey, there’s a lot of queer athletes, so I think it’s a very safe space. But it’s not always like that in the real world,” said Bourbonnais. “It’s important to show people to be happy and proud, because we deserve to have a place that we feel safe and comfortable in. If I can have a little piece of making people feel like they can be themselves, I want to do that.”

Zandee-Hart, who has been with her partner Micheline Metzner for 11 years after meeting in high school through hockey, said that sense of connection has shaped her perspective. “We love to celebrate badass queer women, and that’s both on and off the ice, in terms of our players and our fanbase as well. It’s such an inclusive space, and we want to celebrate everyone. We want everyone to come to our games,” she said.

And while the league has made progress, its salaries serve as a bitter reminder of how much work remains. The 2025-2026 PWHL cap is $1.34 million, minimums are $37,131, and only a handful of players earn six figures — far below the National Hockey League’s $95.5 million cap and $3.5 million average salary.

“We do not make millions of dollars for getting up in the morning, going to do a workout, a practice, a game, traveling for games, being away from our loved ones for the majority of the year, or anything else associated with being a professional athlete. Yet, we still show incredible dedication, passion, and love for the sport,” said Kaltounková. “There is so much more to a women’s hockey game than just watching a bunch of girls battling for a puck, trying to score, or laying a hit on someone. It is the story behind every player that got them where they are, despite so many uncontrollable factors stacked against them. That is pure love.”

When the New York Sirens take the ice at the Garden, it’s a moment that carries the energy of the city, the voices of a fiercely supportive fanbase, the pride of a team that has built its identity on inclusivity and grit, and a powerful statement from the PWHL, showing it’s here to stay with record-breaking crowds.