The four highest-seeded teams in the 2021-22 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament all won their quarterfinal games on their home rinks this past Saturday to advance to Wednesday’s semifinal round and they’re all ranked in the latest state poll.
Three of them – the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe co-op, New Canaan, and Darien – are ranked 3-5, respectively, while Ridgefield is tied for ninth in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll which was released Feb. 27.
Notre Dame-West Haven (15-4-0) received first-place votes from all 12 voting pollsters, consisting of eight media members and four coaches, to be voted No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week.
Xavier (13-6-1) utilized a pair of victories last week to move up one spot to No. 2. That set up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in Friday’s Southern Connecticut Conference/South West Conference Division I championship game.
Fairfield co-op (18-3-0) moved up one spot from the previous poll up to No. 3. New Canaan (13-4-3) dropped down two spots to No. 4. Those movements were due in large part to Fairfield co-op’s 4-2 home victory over New Canaan in a Feb. 21 showdown for the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
Darien was tied for fifth with Northwest Catholic in last week’s poll but the 12-7-1 Blue Wave is No. 5 and Northwest Catholic (14-4-2) is now sixth in this week’s poll.
Fairfield Prep (12-7-0) and Hamden (10-8-1) are now seventh and eighth, respectively.
Ridgefield (10-10-1) and North Haven (18-2), the only Division II team in the Top 10, are tied for ninth for the second straight week.
This latest poll’s voting did account for Saturday’s quarterfinals of the FCIAC tournament.
Darien is seeded first, Fairfield co-op is second, New Canaan is third and Ridgefield is seeded No. 4 in the FCIAC tourney based on conference records during the regular season.
Darien, New Canaan, and Ridgefield all shut out their quarterfinal opponents Saturday.
Darien shut out eighth-seeded Trumbull, 6-0.
Matt Jankovsky scored a pair of goals to lead Fairfield co-op to a 4-1 victory over the seventh-seeded Westhill/Stamford co-operative program.
Doster Crowell netted a hat trick in New Canaan’s 4-0 victory over St. Joseph.
Ridgefield goalie Henry Ertl registered the shutout to lead the fourth-seeded Tigers to their 4-0 victory over fifth-seeded Greenwich.
Wednesday’s semifinal games will be hosted by the higher-seeded teams.
Darien hosts Ridgefield at Darien Ice House at 4 p.m. Darien won a 1-0 game at Ridgefield on Jan. 22 and later beat the Tigers, 4-1, at home on Feb. 16 on its way to securing the top seed.
Fairfield hosts New Canaan at Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport at 7:30 p.m.
This will be a rubber match, with both having won on their home rinks, and the third showdown of these teams within a span of 16 days.