It is annually the case in high school boys’ hockey when late January comes and thus commences the homestretch of the regular season.
Every year there always seems to be several FCIAC teams in the Top 10 of the state poll and that always means there are plenty of vital showdowns on tap for conference teams looking to secure the high seeds in the upcoming FCIAC and Division I state tournaments.
Notre Dame-West Haven remains No. 1 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll, and FCIAC teams Darien and New Canaan are again ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
The top five teams in the previous poll repeated in their same exact spots in this latest poll which was voted on by six media members and four coaches and released Jan. 24.
Notre Dame-West Haven was the unanimous choice for No. 1 with all 10 first-place votes and 100 polling points, with points being divvied up on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. The 6-3-2 Green Knights getting all 10 first-place votes made appropriate sense as their last game prior to the voting for this current poll was a 1-0 win at Darien on Jan. 20.
Darien (7-2-0) received 88 polling points, six more than No. 3 New Canaan (8-2-0). New Canaan’s Rams were ranked No. 2 and Darien was No. 3 in the poll released Jan. 10 but three days later Darien’s Blue Wave beat New Canaan, 4-3, in an overtime thriller and that caused the two rivals to flip-flop positions in the following poll.
Simsbury (7-1-1) remained No. 4 in the current poll and Ridgefield’s 8-4-0 Tigers stayed at No. 5, giving the FCIAC three teams among the top five.
Fairfield Prep (4-9-0), the defending Division I state champion, utilized a 3-1 home victory over Ridgefield on Jan. 20 to move up to No. 6 and vault over Northwest Catholic (8-3-0), which dropped down one spot to No. 7.
The FCIAC has four teams ranked among the top eight as Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe (7-4-0) moved up one spot to No. 8 after winning three of its last four games in a span if seven days with the only loss being an 8-1 home loss to New Canaan on Jan. 23.
Xavier (4-7-1) dropped down a spot to No. 9 and East Haven co-op (12-1) remained at No. 10.
Two FCIAC teams were among the six teams statewide who were in the “Others receiving votes” category. Westhill/Stamford (8-2-0) received the 12th most polling points and Greenwich’s Cardinals (1-9-0) had one pollster rank them No. 10 so they received a point to tie for the 15th most polling points with North Branford (7-3-0).
In a big FCIAC showdown which took place after the voting for the current state poll, second-ranked Darien traveled up to Winter Garden Ice Rink on Wednesday to play fifth-ranked Ridgefield and the visiting Blue Wave improved to 8-2 overall with a 4-1 victory.
Westhill-Stamford improved to 9-2 overall on its own Terry Conners Rink with a 4-2 victory over St. Joseph and Greenwich improved to 2-9 with a 6-4 victory at Trumbull on Wednesday.
This past Wednesday night’s Darien-Ridgefield game was the first of two games the two teams play against each other as most of the traditional top teams in the conference play against each other twice a season.
The schedule of the 12 games for the rest of the regular season involving No. 2 Darien, No. 3 New Canaan, No. 5 Ridgefield, No. 8 Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe, Westhill/Stamford, and Greenwich being matched up against each other is listed below:
Upcoming FCIAC Boys Ice Hockey Schedule
Jan. 26 – Westhill/Stamford at New Canaan, 8:15 p.m.
Jan. 27 – Greenwich at Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe, 11:30 a.m.
Jan. 29 – Darien at Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe, 5:15 p.m.
Feb. 6 – Ridgefield at Greenwich, 4:30 p.m.
Feb. 7 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe at Darien, 8 p.m.
Feb. 10 – Greenwich at Darien, 4:20 p.m.
Feb. 10 – New Canaan at Ridgefield, 8:30 p.m.
Feb. 14 – New Canaan at Darien, 6:10 p.m.
Feb. 14 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe at Ridgefield, 8:30 p.m.
Feb. 17 – Ridgefield at Darien, 4 p.m.
Feb. 17 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe at New Canaan, 7:45 p.m.
Feb. 20 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe at Greenwich, 4:30 p.m.