When the 2023 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament begins Saturday, four conference teams will be ranked in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll and three of those teams are among the top five.
Notre Dame-West Haven remains No. 1, FCIAC teams New Canaan, Darien and Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe are ranked 3-5, and defending conference champion Ridgefield is No. 10 in the state poll released Feb. 21.
ND-West Haven lost a game to a Connecticut team for the first time in 14 months on Feb. 18 when Blake Baksay had three goals and an assist to lead host Fairfield Prep to a 5-1 victory over the defending state champion Green Knights. That result enabled Prep’s Jesuits to ascend three spots from No. 5 last week to No. 2 this week.
It was Notre Dame-West Haven’s first loss to a Connecticut team since a 4-3 overtime loss to New Canaan on Dec. 23, 2021. Coach Larry Vieira’s Green Knights eventually won their state title with a 4-2 victory over Darien in the 2022 CIAC Division I Boys Hockey Tournament state championship game.
Notre Dame-West Haven (14-2-1) received nine of the 11 first-place votes and 106 polling points, while Fairfield Prep (13-6) got one first-place vote and 87 points.
New Canaan, Darien, and Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe were ranked 2-4 in the previous poll, but they each slipped down one spot as Fairfield Prep vaulted over all three of them.
New Canaan’s third-ranked Rams (13-4-2) had four less polling points than Fairfield Prep. Their 83 points were just one point more than Darien (12-4-3), which got 82 points and the other first-place vote. Fifth-ranked Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe (16-2-2) had 76 polling points.
In the game played on Feb. 22 which took place after the voting for this current poll, top-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven improved to 15-2-1 overall with a 7-4 victory at home over No. 4 Darien, which will take a 12-5-3 overall record into its FCIAC tournament semifinal game at home on March 1. ND-West Haven previously won at Darien, 3-2, on Jan. 28.
Simsbury (14-1-2) is ranked No. 6 in this week’s state poll.
Xavier (9-8-2) is ranked seventh, North Haven (16-2-0) and Northwest Catholic (9-8-2) are tied for eighth, and Ridgefield (9-11-0) is 10th as that fourth FCIAC team in the Top 10.
Greenwich (6-13-1), also in the FCIAC tournament, received the 12th most polling points as one of the three teams in the “Also receiving votes” category.
The 11 voters, consisting of seven media members and four coaches, each vote on their top 10 teams in order and points are compiled on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Darien coach Mac Budd and Ridgefield coach Shaun Gallagher are the two FCIAC coaches who vote on the weekly poll.
Third-seeded New Canaan hosts sixth-seeded St. Joseph at Darien Ice House at 2 p.m., and fourth-seeded Ridgefield hosts fifth-seeded Greenwich (8:30 p.m.) at Winter Garden Ice Rink in Saturday’s first round of the FCIAC tournament.
Top-seeded Darien and second-seeded Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe each drew a bye into the semifinals on March 1. Darien will host the winner of the Ridgefield/Greenwich game, and Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe hosts the winner of the New Canaan/St. Joseph game, with faceoff times yet to be determined.
The FCIAC championship game is scheduled for March 4 at Danbury Ice Arena at 3 p.m.
Ridgefield won last year’s FCIAC tournament with a 1-0 overtime victory over Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe in the championship game.
Darien earned the top seed this year with a 7-1-2 FCIAC record, based on each of the six teams in the West Division playing each other twice.
Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe and New Canaan tied for second place with a 7-2-1 record. The Fairfield cooperative team, which earned the tiebreaker advantage by winning both games against New Canaan, then secured the No. 2 seed and first-round bye with a 2-0 victory over Greenwich at home Feb. 18.
Ridgefield was 3-7 while Greenwich and St. Joseph both finished 2-8.
Listed below are the scores of the regular-season games in which the six FCIAC Tier I playoff teams played against each other:
Dec. 29 – Darien 1, Greenwich 0
Jan. 3 – New Canaan 6, Greenwich 2
Jan. 4 – Darien 1, Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 1
Jan. 4 – St. Joseph 6, Ridgefield 4
Jan. 7 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 5, St. Joseph 3
Jan. 7 – New Canaan 6, Ridgefield 1
Jan. 9 – Greenwich 4, St. Joseph 1
Jan. 11 – Darien 3, New Canaan 3
Jan. 11 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 2, Ridgefield 0
Jan. 12 – New Canaan 7, St. Joseph 2
Jan. 14 – Ridgefield 3, Greenwich 0
Jan. 21 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 3, New Canaan 1
Jan. 21 – Darien 3, Ridgefield 2 (OT)
Jan. 23 – Darien 3, St. Joseph 1
Jan. 24 – Greenwich 3, Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 0
Jan. 28 – New Canaan 4, Greenwich 0
Jan. 28 – Ridgefield 5, St. Joseph 1
Jan. 30 – New Canaan 4, St. Joseph 1
Jan. 30 – Ridgefield 2, Greenwich 1
Feb. 1 – Darien 1, Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 0
Feb. 8 – Darien 5, Greenwich 1
Feb. 8 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 8, St. Joseph 0
Feb. 8 – New Canaan 1, Ridgefield 0
Feb. 11 – New Canaan 4, Darien 1
Feb. 11 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 6, Ridgefield 0
Feb. 11 – St. Joseph 5, Greenwich 0
Feb. 13 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 2, New Canaan 1
Feb. 15 – Darien 4, Ridgefield 1
Feb. 16 – Darien 6, St. Joseph 0
Feb. 18 – Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe 2, Greenwich 0