The FCIAC is represented with five teams ranked among the top eight in the most recent GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll which was released March 3.
Fairfield Prep remains No. 1, the undefeated Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe co-op program is the highest-ranked FCIAC team at No. 3 while Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan and Ridgefield are the four other conference teams ranked among the top eight.
Fairfield Prep (6-1) received 11 of the 13 first-place votes while second-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven (6-1) and the Fairfield co-op (5-0) each received one first-place vote.
Fairfield is at the beginning of a run of four FCIAC teams ranked 3-through-6 as Darien (3-2-1) is ranked No. 4 and followed by Greenwich (2-2) and sixth-ranked New Canaan (3-3-1).
Sheehan (6-1) is ranked seventh while No. 8 Ridgefield (3-5) is that fifth FCIAC team ranked among the top eight.
Daniel Hand (2-1) and Xavier (3-1) complete the Top 10.
Trumbull (5-1) received the 13th most polling points as the only FCIAC team and among the sixth total teams in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Points are tabulated on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis and the voting pollsters consist of 10 media members, Ridgefield coach Shaun Gallagher, Fairfield Prep coach Matt Sather and ND-West Haven coach Larry Viera.
The team records listed in parenthesis reflect the games played through Saturday, Feb. 27.
Finn Hoey netted a three-goal hat trick to lead Fairfield to a 7-5 victory over New Canaan on Feb. 27. That impressed the pollsters enough to move Fairfield up two spots for the highest state poll ranking in the program’s history.
Fairfield then followed that up with yet another big victory for the program, a 4-3 home victory over Darien on March 3 to improve to 6-0 overall.
Fairfield and Darien play each other back-to-back so a rematch is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, at Darien Ice House.
Because this 2021 winter pandemic season has necessitated unique scheduling, the six Division I teams in the FCIAC are guaranteed a competitive challenge each game as they all play each other twice.
The conference’s Division I teams play only against other Division I teams – mostly fellow FCIAC teams but also including several matchups against Fairfield Prep and Notre Dame-West Haven which have already taken place.
And the conference’s five Division II and III teams are scheduled against other teams in those divisions.
Postseason play has been another part of this season which has had to be altered. There will be no CIAC state tournament so all 11 FCIAC teams will conclude their seasons by playing in their respective divisional conference tournaments.
The Fairfield co-op maintained first place in the conference’s Division I standings, improving to 4-0 with that big win over Darien on Wednesday, March 3, in what was a showdown for first place in the FCIAC.
As for the other FCIAC Division I team records through March 3, Darien is in second place at 3-1-1 and followed by Greenwich (3-2), Ridgefield (3-3), New Canaan (2-3-1) and St. Joseph (0-6).