Darien utilized an impressive 5-2 home victory over top-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven on Jan. 11 to leapfrog over two teams from the previous poll and surge up to No. 1 in the latest GameTimeCT Boys Hockey Top 10 Poll.
As is so often the case in this state hockey poll voted on by five coaches and nine media pollsters, the traditional powers from the FCIAC are prevalent.
Darien is the first of four conference teams among the top seven as New Canaan, Ridgefield and Greenwich are ranked 5-7, respectively.
Darien, which had a 4-2 record at the time the poll was released Jan. 14, received five of the 14 first-place votes and 125 points to vault over previous No. 1 Notre Dame-West Haven and previous second-ranked Fairfield Prep.
Notre Dame-West Haven (7-2) dropped down one slot to No. 2, receiving four first-place votes and 119 points.
Fairfield Prep (3-2-1) received the other five first-place votes and 117 points to drop down a slot from No. 2 to No. 3.
Darien has another big showdown this Saturday when it hosts defending Division I state champion Fairfield Prep at the Darien Ice House at 3:50 p.m.
Xavier (4-1) was tied for fourth with Ridgefield in the previous poll and is alone at No. 4 in this latest poll.
New Canaan won a pair of games to improve to 7-1 and move one slot up to No. 5.
Ridgefield (3-3) dropped down to No. 6 after losing its only game of the previous week to LaSalle Academy (R.I.), 3-1.
Greenwich was not ranked in the previous poll and began its previous week with a 3-1 home loss to Notre Dame-West Haven on Jan. 8. But then the Cardinals followed that with a most impressive 7-0 victory at Hamden, then ranked No. 7, and a 3-2 overtime victory at Darien this past Monday (Jan. 13) to surge up to seventh.
The final three teams in the Top 10 are Notre Dame-Fairfield (5-3-1), Hamden (5-4) and Branford (7-1), the only Division II team in the Top 10. The top nine teams are all Division I.
There are no FCIAC teams among the four in the “Others receiving votes” category.
It is still very early in the conference schedule for FCIAC teams. Ridgefield had a 3-0 record, New Canaan, Greenwich, Trumbull and the Fairfield co-operative program were all 1-0 and Darien was 1-1 as of the games played through Wednesday.
Greenwich’s big victory Monday at Darien was the conference game for the two teams which have split in their two matchups this year as Darien won the non-conference game, 5-3, at Greenwich on Dec. 28.
Top-ranked Darien will play fifth-ranked New Canaan at the Darien Ice House on Feb. 8 at 3:50 p.m., and host sixth-ranked Ridgefield on Feb. 21 at 8:10 p.m.
New Canaan nipped Greenwich, 3-2, in both teams’ season opener on Dec. 16 at the Darien Ice House. The rematch and conference game between those two will be at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Greenwich. New Canaan will play at Ridgefield on Jan. 24 at 6 p.m.
Greenwich, which dropped to 0-3 after that Dec. 28 loss to Darien, will host Ridgefield on Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m.