"Unique" Ross Makes Anticipated Debut on Sirens' Blueline

TORONTO - The New York Sirens iced a fully healthy lineup Tuesday for the first time this season, and the occasion was fittingly heralded in warmups by Dayle Ross’ rookie lap.

The first pick of June's fourth round and the only defender out of a plentiful 2025 New York draft class, Ross registered two hits and a blocked shot in her first game following offseason knee surgery, contributing to a 2-0 shutout victory over the home Toronto Sceptres.

"Great to see [Ross] come back. To come back from an injury like that, after so long, it's incredible," Sirens head coach Greg Fargo said postgame. "She's been working exceptionally hard."

New York has exercised an abundance of caution while managing Ross' recovery, further demonstrated by her 6:47 of ice time as the seventh defender in her debut. "She's not preparing herself for a single season, she's preparing herself for a great career," general manager Pascal Daoust said in November, when Ross was formally placed on long-term injured reserve.

It's a far cry from the approach she took last season, where she appeared in all 36 games for the St. Cloud State University Huskies despite suffering the injury within the first ten.

"Obviously, when it happened, I played a full season on a torn ACL. I tried to tell myself I wasn't actually injured, and not to believe that," Ross explained in the postgame press conference. This time around, though, she applied that mindset to her recovery and her return. "I really tried to tell myself that, you know, there's no mental block, and I have to really believe that."

"It's 90% mental out there, and it worked for me today, so I'm proud of myself for that."

There were early jitters, of course. An icing millimetres away from glancing off Elaine Chuli's pad instead led to a near-miss deflection from Toronto's Sara Hjalmarsson on Ross' first PWHL shift, but she settled in nicely afterwards. Despite the Sceptres outshooting the Sirens 31-22 over the course of the game, just a single one of those shots came in the remainder of Ross' minutes, and it was a sharp-angle shot that Natalie Spooner was forced to settle for thanks to Ross herself boxing her out. Even in the limited time she had to show off her skillset in action, the coaching staff took notice.

"Dayle offers something we don't have a lot of on our D corps. She's strong, a really strong defender. She can clear the front of the net, she can make plays on walls to get us out and transition, and there's a physicality element that we really like to her game," Fargo said. "As she gets more comfortable, we're going to continue to find opportunities where she can shine and be her best."

"I definitely think she brings an element to our D corps that's unique."

After a stretch of four games in ten days, Ross and the Sirens have the next ten days off before taking on the Minnesota Frost at Prudential Center in what's expected to be the defender's home debut.