The first matchup of the year of traditional rivals and two of the best high school boys’ hockey teams in the state will occur Saturday at Darien Ice House when second-ranked New Canaan plays third-ranked Darien at 4:15 p.m.
Notre Dame-West Haven is ranked No. 1 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll which was released Wednesday, Jan. 10.
New Canaan and Darien are two of the four teams from the FCIAC ranked among the top six, as Ridgefield and the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe cooperative team ranked No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Ridgefield improved to 7-3 with a home victory over Xavier on Jan. 10 and the Tigers were set to travel the next day (Jan. 11) to play host Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe (5-1) at Sacred Heart University’s Martire Arena at 6:30 p.m.
New Canaan goalie Mason Pickering had 26 saves to help the Rams improve to 6-1 with a 3-1 home victory over Ridgefield in their last game. New Canaan’s lone loss was at Notre Dame-West Haven by a 5-1 margin on Dec. 23, among the reasons why ND-West Haven’s Green Knights were the unanimous choice for No. 1 in the state poll.
Darien will be back on the ice for a game for the first time in a couple weeks as the Blue Wave improved to 4-1 in its last game on Dec. 29 with a 5-3 victory at Greenwich.
Notre Dame-West Haven improved to 3-2-2 with a 4-1 home victory over Fairfield Prep on Jan. 6. The Green Knights play several games against some of the best high school programs in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the first half of the season and they are 2-0 against in-state competition with their victories over New Canaan and Fairfield Prep, which was ranked No. 6 in the previous state poll.
The 10 teams in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll, in order, are: Notre Dame-West Haven, No. 2 New Canaan, No. 3 Darien, Simsbury, No. 5 Ridgefield, No. 6 Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe, Northwest Catholic, Fairfield Prep, Xavier, and East Haven Co-op.
East Haven replaced Greenwich in the Top 10.
There are six FCIAC teams among the top 12 regarding polling points received in the voting as Greenwich (0-6) and the unbeaten Westhill/Stamford cooperative team (7-0) are the first two teams in the “Others receiving votes” category. Greenwich’s Cardinals have had quite the challenging early schedule as their 6-1 loss at Fairfield Prep on Jan. 10 dropped them to 0-6 and occurred after they lost twice to New Canaan and once to Darien.
Notre Dame-West Haven’s recent home victory over Fairfield Prep avenged a 3-0 loss to Prep’s Jesuits in last year’s state championship game in the 2023 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Hockey Tournament.
Fairfield Prep advanced to the championship game with a 5-0 victory over Greenwich and ND-West Haven defeated New Canaan, 5-1, in the semifinals.
The FCIAC had four of the eight quarterfinal teams in last year’s Division I state tournament. New Canaan defeated Darien, 4-1, Greenwich shut out Simsbury, 1-0, and ND-West Haven advanced to semifinals with a 5-0 victory Ridgefield.
Fairfield Prep (18-6) was unanimously voted No. 1 in the Final 2022-23 GameTimeCT Top 10 Boys Hockey Poll and was followed by Notre Dame-West Haven (18-5-1), No. 3 New Canaan (16-7-2), No. 4 Darien (15-6-3), No. 5 Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe (17-3-2), Simsbury (18-3-2), Division II state champion North Haven (24-2), No. 8 Greenwich (9-15-1), Northwest Catholic (11-10-1), and No. 10 Ridgefield, the fifth FCIAC team in the final Top 10.
Just before last year’s state tournaments commenced, Darien won the 2023 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament with a 3-0 victory over Fairfield at Danbury Ice Arena. Darien defeated Greenwich, 7-3, and Fairfield beat New Canaan, 5-1, in last year’s FCIAC semifinals.
Darien Ice House is the home ice rink for both New Canaan and Darien. New Canaan is the official home team for this Saturday’s game and Darien will be the designated home team for the Feb. 14 rematch.