FCIAC boys hockey playoff race down to wire; Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich vie for top seed

Darien was unanimously voted No. 1 for the second consecutive week in the GameTimeCT Boys Hockey Top 10 Poll.

That much is certain.

What is still uncertain, however, is whether the Blue Wave will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming 2019-20 FCIAC Boys Ice Hockey Tournament which commences Feb. 29.

Such is the state of the balance and strength of the conference’s four perennial powers – Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich and Ridgefield – which is why the exact order of the seedings is still to be decided.

Those four have already secured their FCIAC playoff berths in the six-team tournament and they’re all ranked among the top six in the latest state poll which was released Feb. 18.

It will be a big Friday night showdown at the Darien Ice House when the Blue Wave hosts three-time defending conference champion Ridgefield, with faceoff scheduled for 8:10 p.m.

That game will be pivotal in determining the order of the higher seeds.

There are 12 boys ice hockey programs in the FCIAC, with each having 11 games in the conference season.

After the Feb. 19 slate of Wednesday night games, New Canaan and Greenwich each improved to 9-1 in the FCIAC with victories Wednesday to remain tied for first place with 18 points and one remaining conference game apiece.

Darien has two remaining conference games and 16 points, having improved to 8-1 with a 4-1 home victory over the Fairfield Ludlowe/Warde cooperative program Wednesday evening.

Ridgefield also has 16 points with an 8-2 FCIAC record and just Friday night’s big game at Darien Ice House as its only remaining conference game.

As for how the top four teams have fared against each other in the five previous conference matchups, in the order of the dates in which those pivotal games occurred: Greenwich pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory on Jan. 13 at Darien, New Canaan posted a 2-0 victory at Ridgefield on Jan. 24, host Greenwich nipped Ridgefield by a 2-1 margin on Feb. 4, and Darien was officially the visiting team when the Blue Wave really grabbed the attention of the state pollsters with a most impressive 10-2 win over New Canaan on Feb. 8 at the Darien Ice House which is the home rink for both rivals. Five days later New Canaan’s Rams gave display of their character when they rebounded with a big 3-2 victory at Greenwich on Feb. 13.

Consequently, New Canaan and Greenwich both have 2-1 records in their matchups involving those four conference powers currently ranked among the top six in the state poll, while Darien is 1-1 and Ridgefield 0-2 going into Friday’s showdown with each other.

Wednesday night was also a key night toward determining the final two playoff berths, notably the Westhill/Stamford cooperative program coming through with a big 4-3 home victory over Trumbull.

Westhill/Stamford, which was in sixth place and just one point ahead of Trumbull going into the game, improved to 5-4 in the conference and is now tied for fifth place with Fairfield co-op, also with 10 points and a 5-4 record after Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss at Darien.

Westhill/Stamford co-op, Fairfield co-op and Trumbull each have two conference games remaining and it is a strong possibility the two co-op programs snatch those last two spots, given that they’ve both already beaten Trumbull to have the head-to-head tiebreaker to their advantage and they both lead Trumbull (3-5-1 FCIAC, seven points) by three points.

Fairfield/Ludlowe co-op hosts Westhill/Stamford co-op Saturday night (7:30 p.m.) at Wonderland of Ice Stadium in the game which quite possibly will determine the fifth seed in the conference tournament.

Trumbull’s Eagles would have to get the help of having one of those two co-op programs losing both of their final conference games and the Eagles will have to go 2-0, which would include the daunting task of a major upset of Darien in the Feb. 26 season finale at Shelton Sports Center of Connecticut in Shelton.

The 2019-20 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament commences Feb. 29, a Saturday, with the playdowns at the home rinks of the third- and fourth-seeded teams.

The top two seeds draw byes in the semifinals on March 4. The sites and times are still to be announced for the first two rounds.

The Saturday night March 7 championship game is scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m. at Dorothy Hamill Rink in Greenwich.

Last year Ridgefield three-peated as FCIAC champion with an 8-1 victory over Greenwich. The Tigers advanced to the final with a victory by that same 8-1 score over Westhill/Stamford and Greenwich won a 2-1 double-overtime thriller over Darien in the other semifinal.

The current GameTimeCT Boys Hockey Top 10 Poll accounted for the games played through Feb. 15 and at that point Darien had improved to 12-4 to be voted No. 1 unanimously for the second straight week.

Fairfield Prep (9-6-2) remained No. 2 for the second straight week. The Jesuits were ranked first a few weeks back but a 2-1 home loss to Darien on Feb. 5 was cause for those two teams to flip-flop the No. 1 and No. 2 positions a couple weeks ago.

New Canaan (15-2-1) utilized that big 3-2 win at Greenwich and another pair of wins after that to vault up a pair of spots from No. 5 last week to No. 3 now.

Fourth-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven (13-5) and fifth-ranked Greenwich (11-6-1) each dropped down one spot from the previous poll.

Ridgefield’s 11-6 Tigers remained No. 6 for the sixth consecutive week as that fourth FCIAC team among the top six.

Xavier (7-7-2) is ranked seventh, Branford (14-2-1) and Notre Dame-Fairfield (8-7-2) are tied for eighth while Daniel Hand (13-1-1) completes the Top 10.

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