It is always the same every winter high school sports season when it comes to the quality of boys’ ice hockey in the FCIAC.
The FCIAC annually has many players who are among the best in the state, and several of its upper-tier teams are also always among the best in the state under the guidance solid veteran head coaches.
Such was the case once again during this past 2023-24 winter season.
Senior forward Doster Crowell concluded his great career with another great season and senior goalie Mason Pickering excelled between the pipes to lead New Canaan to its 21st FCIAC championship and then a strong run to the Division I state tournament championship game where the Rams lost to an excellent Notre Dame-West Haven team.
Senior forward Max Lowe secured New Canaan’s 3-2 sudden victory over Ridgefield for that conference record 21st championship by scoring the game-winning goal 6:56 into the overtime session in the 2024 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament championship game at Danbury Ice Arena on March 2.
Rogan Lowe and Tony DelCarmine scored the goals in regulation for coach Clark Jones’s top-seeded Rams.
Luke Pereira and Angelo Ciminiello scored Ridgefield’s goals. Pereira had a hat trick in the previous game when coach Shaun Gallagher’s third-seeded Ridgefield Tigers advanced to the final with a 6-2 victory over second-seeded and defending champion Darien at the FCIAC tournament semifinal doubleheader on Feb. 28 at Darien Ice House.
Max Lowe had a pair of goals in New Canaan’s 5-0 semifinal victory over fifth-seeded Greenwich. Crowell scored a goal after he assisted Lowe on the goal which gave New Canaan a 2-0 lead. Pickering registered the fifth of his six shutouts on the year.
In the FCIAC quarterfinals on Feb. 24 at the home rinks of the higher-seeded teams: Greenwich nipped the fourth-seeded Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe cooperative team, 4-3; Darien defeated No. 7 seed Westhill/Stamford co-op, 8-3; Ridgefield shut out No. 6 St. Joseph, 6-0; and New Canaan’s first game was in the semifinals because No. 8 Wilton opted out of the conference tournament.
After New Canaan’s Rams got off to a 3-0 start to their season, they lost their first game to Notre Dame-West Haven, 5-1, on Dec. 23 at Darien Ice House. New Canaan dropped to 6-2 with a 4-3 overtime loss to Darien on Jan. 13 and then the Rams reeled off 17 straight wins before ND-West Haven ended that winning streak with a 4-1 victory in the championship game of the 2024 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Boys Hockey Division I Tournament on March 19 at M&T Bank Arena on the Quinnipiac University campus.
New Canaan, which avenged the Darien loss in the rematch with a 4-3 OT win on Feb. 14, finished 23-3 and the No. 2 ranking behind Notre Dame-West Haven in the GameTimeCT Final 2024 Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll.
ND-West Haven finished 19-4-2. Coach Larry Vieira usually includes many of the best teams from Massachusetts and Rhode Island on the regular-season schedule. The Green Knights had a 5-4-2 record in those games and were unbeaten in 14 games against their state competition, so they were voted No. 1 unanimously with all 10 first-place votes and 100 polling points from the voters consisting of six media members and four coaches. Gallagher and Darien coach Mac Budd are the FCIAC coaches who vote along with Vieira and Newington co-op coach Dave Harackiewicz.
Votes are tabulated on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. New Canaan’s Rams were ranked No. 2 by nine voters so they got 89 polling points to finish 14 points higher than No. 3 Simsbury (20-2-2), which moved up one spot from the previous poll. Simsbury gave ND-West Haven an upset scare in the Division I tournament semifinals before the Green Knights prevailed for the 3-2 victory.
There were three FCIAC teams ranked among the top five.
Darien (15-8-1) was No. 4 with 68 polling points and Ridgefield (15-9-1) was No. 5 with 59 points, 18 points more than No. 6 Northwest Catholic (14-10). Darien defeated Ridgefield, 3-1, in the state Division I quarterfinals and had its season end with a 6-1 loss to New Canaan in the semifinals.
Cheshire was ranked No. 7 after finishing 24-1-1 with a 6-3 victory over East Haven co-op in the CIAC Division II state tournament final and followed in the final Top 10 by Xavier (8-13-2), defending Division I state champion Fairfield Prep (8-15), and No. 10 East Haven co-op (8-16).
There were three teams in the Others Receiving Votes category and FCIAC teams Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe co-op (11-9-1) and Greenwich (6-17) received the 11th and 12th most polling points, respectively.
Between the handful of categories on the All-FCIAC teams and several more categories on the two all-state teams, one selected by the coaches and the other by the media, many FCIAC players received postseason accolades and plenty of them had multiple honors.
The 2023-24 All-FCIAC Boys Hockey First Team consisted of Crowell and Pickering of New Canaan, senior defenseman Liam Forrest and senior forward Ryan Tymon of Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe co-op, Darien junior forward Aidan Elders, and Ridgefield senior defenseman Shaun Rigby. Coincidentally and appropriately enough they were the same exact six players who got the highest all-state accolades a player can receive. They combined to make up half of the 12-player 2023-24 GameTimeCT All-State Boys Ice Hockey First Team and they were among the 16 total on the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Division I All-State First Team.
The selection formats for both all-state teams are categorized differently. The GameTimeCT all-state teams have the four categories of first team, second team, third team, and Honorable Mention, and those players are chosen from all divisions statewide.
The CHSCA all-state teams selected by the state’s coaches have six categories – an all-state first team and an all-state second team for each of Division I, Division II, and Division III.
Crowell was selected as the MVP on the CHSCA Division I All-State First Team and to the GameTimeCT All-State First Team for the second consecutive year. He scored 29 goals and had 25 assists as a senior and racked up 80 goals and 139 points for his career.
The two-year captain is the only player who made the All-FCIAC First Team this year and last year. Crowell made the All-FCIAC Second Team as a sophomore.
Pickering, Tymon, and Rigby were this year’s all-conference first-teamers who were on last year’s 2022-23 All-FCIAC Second Team.