High school boys ice hockey is now into the final phase of its 2024-25 regular season and the FCIAC is once again very well represented in that top tier of the best teams in the state.
Undefeated New Canaan and Darien are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and Ridgefield is No. 5 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll.
And as coincidence has it, New Canaan, Darien and Ridgefield are all involved in a few pivotal conference games against each other in the next several days which will have significant importance in eventually determining the top seeds in the upcoming FCIAC and state Division I postseason tournaments.
The best Division I teams in the FCIAC have a tradition of scheduling many of the other best perennial powers in the state on their regular-season schedules as that benefits all those elite teams statewide – and the fans as well.
New Canaan was set to play quite the challenging stretch with a trio of games within the span of the six days from Feb. 5-10 against three teams ranked in the top five of that latest GameTimeCT state poll which was released Feb. 5.
Coach Clark Jones’ top-ranked New Canaan Rams began that stretch in impressive fashion on Feb. 5 when Rogan Lowe scored two goals to help them rally back from an early 2-0 deficit and improve to 15-0-0 overall with a 3-2 road victory over third-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven at Edward L. Bennett Rink in a rematch of last year’s Division I state championship game which ND-West Haven won by a 4-1 margin.
Ethan Kelly and Jack Aloi each scored a goal late in the first period to stake Notre Dame-West Haven (7-7) to its 2-0 lead before New Canaan’s Bauer Gammill assisted Lowe on the goal which cut the deficit in half with just 10 seconds remaining in the opening period. Lowe tied it up with 7:11 remaining in the second period on assists from Cameron Lyden and Andrew Harmon, and a minute and 54 seconds later Tony DelCarmine netted the game-winning goal on an assist from Jack Thompson. New Canaan goalie Brendon Harmon, who shut out the Green Knights in the last two periods, had 23 saves in the game.
Three days after that game, this Saturday afternoon on Feb. 8, New Canaan’s Rams were scheduled to host fifth-ranked Ridgefield (10-6-0 overall) at their own Darien Ice House rink. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.
And then two nights after that, Monday night at 6:15 p.m., there will be the No. 1-versus-No. 2 showdown between New Canaan and Darien’s 12-2-0 Blue Wave on that same Darien Ice House rink which both bordering town rivals share as their home rink.
The top Division I teams in the FCIAC play each other twice during the regular season, so there is always the possibility of four such showdowns in any given season because of the potential for rematches in FCIAC and Division I state tournaments.
New Canaan shut out host Ridgefield, 2-0, on Jan. 8, and three days later the Rams defeated Darien, 4-2, on the Saturday afternoon of Jan. 11. Darien posted a 3-1 home victory over Ridgefield on Jan. 23 and those two teams are scheduled to have their rematch at Ridgefield’s Winter Garden Ice Rink on Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
Another very big conference game takes place this Saturday in what has evolved into quite the quality FCIAC doubleheader at Darien Ice Rink. Darien hosts a solid Greenwich team in the game immediately following the New Canaan-Ridgefield showdown. Opening faceoff for the Darien-Greenwich game is scheduled for 6:40 p.m.
Greenwich, which improved to 6-7-1 overall with a 6-2 home victory over Trumbull on Feb. 5, has been competitive in its five combined losses to New Canaan, Darien and Ridgefield. Greenwich has lost by the scores of 3-1 and 4-2 to New Canaan, 5-0 and 2-0 to Ridgefield, and 2-1 at home to Darien on Feb. 1.
Notre Dame-West Haven’s 4-1 victory over New Canaan in last year’s championship game of the 2024 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Boys Hockey Tournament at Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena was the program’s second Division I state title in the previous three seasons. Coach Larry Vieira’s second-seeded Green Knights advanced to the final with a 3-2 victory over No. 3 Simsbury in the second game of last year’s semifinal doubleheader at M&T Bank Arena after No. 1 New Canaan won the opener with a 6-1 victory over No. 4 Darien.
Notre Dame-West Haven, New Canaan, Darien, Simsbury and No. 5 Ridgefield all had byes in the first round. In the quarterfinals: ND-West Haven shut out seventh-seeded Xavier, 3-0; New Canaan shut out No. 9 Greenwich, 7-0; Darien defeated Ridgefield, 3-1; and Simsbury edged No. 6 Northwest Catholic, 3-1. Greenwich defeated defending champion and No. 8 Fairfield Prep, 4-3, in the first round.
New Canaan received seven of the eight first-place votes in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll and Darien got the other one. Notre Dame-West Haven is ranked No. 3 and followed in the Top 10 by Simsbury, No. 5 Ridgefield, East Haven, North Haven, Fairfield Prep, Cheshire, and Xavier.
Notre Dame-West Haven was appropriately ranked No. 1 unanimously in last year’s GameTimeCT Final 2024 Top 10 Boys Hockey Polls after finishing 19-4-2 overall and New Canaan’s 23-3-0 Rams were No. 2 while leading a trio of FCIAC teams among the top five. Simsbury (20-2-2) was ranked third and followed by FCIAC teams Darien (15-8-1) and Ridgefield (15-9-0). The final five teams were Northwest Catholic (14-10-0), Division II state champion Cheshire (24-1-1), No. 8 Xavier (8-13-2), Fairfield Prep (8-15-0), and East Haven Co-Op (8-16-0).
In addition to being a perfect 15-0-0 in the first 15 of their 20 scheduled games this regular season, New Canaan’s Rams are in first place in the FCIAC West Division standings by a comfortable margin with 14 points accumulated via their seven conference victories.
Darien (5-1-0) and Ridgefield (5-2-0) both have 10 points and they’re followed by Greenwich (2-5-0 FCIAC, 6-7-1 overall), St. Joseph (1-6-0, 3-13-0), and the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe Co-Operative program (0-6-0, 0-14-0) in the standings updated through Feb. 5.
In the FCIAC East Division standings: Wilton (3-0-0 FCIAC, 7-3-1 overall) and the Stamford/Westhill Co-Op team (3-1-0, 8-7-0) both have six points and are followed by the Norwalk/Brien McMahon/Staples Co-Op team (2-3-0, 6-6-0) which is also known as STORMAC, and Trumbull (0-4-0, 2-11-1).
Wilton nipped host Westhill/Stamford, 3-2, on Jan. 4. Those two teams have their rematch on Feb. 19 (8:30 p.m.) at the Winter Garden Ice Rink in Ridgefield.
Among the eight overall victories for the Division II Westhill/Stamford Co-Op program, one win that really caught the attention of many FCIAC boys ice hockey aficionados was Westhill/Stamford’s 3-1 home victory over Ridgefield on Jan. 22.
The 2025 FCIAC Boys Ice Hockey Tournament is scheduled to begin Feb. 22 with two first-round games as the top two seeds will earn first-round byes and play their first conference tourney games in the Feb. 27 semifinals. The two first-round games and both semifinal games will be played at the home rinks of the higher seeds. The FCIAC championship will be played at Sacred Heart University’s year-old Martire Family Arena on March 4 at 8 p.m.
Last year’s FCIAC championship game was an overtime thriller and New Canaan’s senior forward Max Lowe scored the goal which gave the Rams the 3-2 sudden victory over Ridgefield. Rogan Lowe and DelCarmine scored other goals for New Canaan, which now has the record of 21 FCIAC championships. New Canaan shut out Greenwich, 5-0, in the semifinals and Ridgefield advanced with a 6-2 victory over defending champion Darien.