Darien and New Canaan have long been perennial powers and each of those programs won a championship to highlight the 2023-24 girls ice hockey season in the FCIAC.
Izzy Haire’s second goal of the game was the dramatic game-winning goal in the second overtime when coach Jamie Tropsa’s Darien Blue Wave defended its conference title with a 3-2 victory over New Canaan in the FCIAC Girls Hockey Tournament final on Feb. 24 at Darien Ice House.
Eleven days later coach Rich Bulan’s New Canaan Rams captured their crown when they shut out the Stamford/Westhill/Staples cooperative program, 3-0, to win the Connecticut High School Girls Hockey Association state championship at Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena on March 6.
There are many good players who are good skaters and very skilled while playing the forward and defense positions in the FCIAC. And there also happened to be three goalies who excelled and played particularly huge roles in their teams’ successes, including a pair of freshmen.
Macyn Callahan of New Canaan and McCaffrey Tuttle of the Stamford/Westhill/Staples program were those two fabulous freshmen goalies who made huge impacts for their respective teams. These two had such great years that they were both selected as the two goalies on both the All-FCIAC Girls Hockey First Team and the CHSGHA All-State First Team.
Darien’s junior goalie J.J. Maher also had a great year as she came up big with 37 saves to help the Blue Wave win that 3-2 double-overtime thriller in the championship game of the FCIAC Tournament. Maher and Callahan were both fantastic as the game was fast and flowing up and down the ice and they combined to stop 83 shots. Callahan had 46 saves. Darien previously shut out New Canaan twice by the scores of 1-0 during the regular season and Maher registered those shutouts with a combined 39 saves.
In addition to Haire’s two goals in that FCIAC championship game, Sarah Kellogg scored the goal which gave Darien a 2-1 lead in the first period. Adriana Gromelski, Sophie Haas, Parker Krotee and Teagan Joseph all had assists in regulation for the Blue Wave. Darien’s Lila Fiorita assisted her fellow sophomore, Haire, on that game-winning goal at 12:37 of the second overtime.
Sam Mettler scored New Canaan’s first goal on an assist from Nora Moley and Isabella Hanna tied it 2-2 for the Rams at 14:12 of the first period on an assist from Maddie Rayher before both goalies withstood the continued onslaught of shots and kept the puck out of their nets in the second and third periods.
In what was a precursor to the championship game, Haire ended the FCIAC semifinal game in jubilation for the Blue Wave when she scored in the second OT to give Darien a 2-1 victory over Stamford/Westhill/Staples.
New Canaan junior forward Maddie Tully scored two goals and Callahan registered the shutout with 16 saves to lead the Rams to the FCIAC final with their 4-0 victory over the Wilton/Norwalk/McMahon co-op team.
In the quarterfinals of the CHSGHA state tournament: sophomore Mia Avalos scored the game’s lone goal in Darien’s 1-0 victory over Hamden, 1-0; New Canaan nipped Suffield co-op, 2-1; and Stamford/Westhill/Staples scored in the second OT to pull out a 3-2 victory over fifth-seeded Mercy co-op.
Fourth-seeded Stamford/Westhill/Staples, which had lost two games in the regular-season to top-seeded Darien by the scores of 2-1 and 3-1, advanced to the championship with a 2-0 victory over defending state champion Darien. It was a pair of freshmen who led the winners. Maggie Lyden scored both goals and Tuttle stopped 25 shots en route to the shutout.
New Canaan senior co-captain Lexie Tully netted the tying goal with just 1:24 remaining in the third period and then she assisted Serena O’Connor on the game-winner in OT in second-seeded New Canaan’s 2-1 semifinal victory over third-seeded East Catholic co-op on March 2.
Fours day later the Rams won their state championship as Tully and Rayher both had a goal and an assist in the 3-0 victory over Stamford/Westhill/Staples. Callahan had a few spectacular saves among her 22 total to earn the shutout and MVP award.
Lexie Tully and Maddie Tully of New Canaan, Maggie Bellissimo and Fiorita of Darien, and Julia Bella of the Wilton/Norwalk/McMahon cooperative program were the other five FCIAC players who made the CHSGHA All-State First Team in addition to Callahan and Tuttle being selected for the two goalie spots. The FCIAC had seven of the 15 players on that all-state first team.
There were 15 more players chosen to the all-state second team, including Maya Sherman of Stamford/Westhill/Staples, and Darien’s Gromelski and Haire.
Darien, New Canaan, and Stamford/Westhill/Staples co-op each had three of the players on the All-FCIAC First Team. The 12 all-conference first-teamers were Bellissimo, Fiorita and Haire of Darien; Lexie Tully, Maddie Tully and Callahan of New Canaan; Anne Leydon, Tuttle, and Sherman of Stamford/Westhill/Staples; Bella of Wilton/Norwalk/McMahon; Greenwich’s Lindsay Allen, and Ridgefield/Danbury’s Kelsey Gotti.
Darien had five of the 12 players on the All-FCIAC Second Team, and the dozen players on that were Skylar Ravosa, Krotee, Gromelski, Kellogg, and Maher of Darien; Mettler and O’Connor of New Canaan; Mary Stowe, Sofia Couture, and goalie Lucy Kimberly of Trumbull/St. Joseph; Delaney Sheppard of Ridgefield/Danbury, and Greenwich’s Aubrey Roth.
John Fay and Steve Falcone, the co-coaches for Stamford/Westhill/Staples, were the Coaches of the Year.
Coach Bulan and his New Canaan Rams extended their record for the most state championships when they won their ninth state title in their 11th state tourney final appearance since New Canaan won the first state tournament championship ever with a 4-1 victory over Ridgefield in 2006. Darien has won five state championships in eight finals appearances for the second most state titles.
New Canaan and Darien have combined to win 17 of the 21 FCIAC Tournament championships since Ridgefield won the first one in 2004. New Canaan has won nine FCIAC tournament championships and Darien captured its eighth conference crown this winter. As for the other three conference championships, St. Joseph won in 2008 and Greenwich went back-to-back in 2017 and ’18.