Of all the great years and the so many great teams from a very successful and very proud New Canaan boys ice hockey program throughout about the last half dozen decades or so, the 2026 Rams will always be a team that is quite special.
These Rams are especially special because they achieved something which hadn’t been done in 54 years when they won FCIAC and state championships in the same season and ended being ranked No. 1 in the final state poll for the first time in school history.
That was what highlighted a successful 2025-26 boys ice hockey season for the FCIAC. New Canaan led a trio of FCIAC teams ranked in among the top eight in Final GametimeCT 2026 Top 10 Boys Ice Hockey Poll.
New Canaan junior Willie Ericson scored the game-winning goal 4:27 into overtime in the championship game of the 2026 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament to give the 1-0 sudden victory to the Rams and win them their third straight conference crown on March 4 at Sacred Heart University’s Martire Family Arena.
New Canaan increased its record of FCIAC championships up to 23, a dozen more than the 11 Greenwich has with the second most. New Canaan has won five conference championships in the last seven seasons since 2020.
Nineteen days later New Canaan won the program’s first state championship since 1972 with a 3-1 victory over Fairfield Prep in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Boys Hockey Tournament final on March 23 at Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena.
Coach Clark Jones’ Rams outscored their opposition 16-3, including a pair of shutout victories, while winning both games in the FCIAC tournament and three games in the Division I state tourney.
Their superb sophomore goalie, Blake Pozatek, stopped all 22 shots in New Canaan’s 1-0 overtime victory over Darien in the FCIAC championship game. Darien’s outstanding senior goalie Schafer Repsher matched Pozatek with dual shutouts through the three periods of regulation and he also had 22 saves.
New Canaan freshman Cody Jones passed the puck goalward toward Ericson crashing the net and Ericson finished it off with conference championship-winning goal. Owen Robie had the secondary assist.
Repsher played very well in net for the Blue Wave in both FCIAC tournament games, including Darien’s 5-1 victory over Greenwich in the semifinals. New Canaan advanced to the FCIAC final with a 5-1 victory over Ridgefield.
Anthony DelCarmine, Drew Harmon and Rogan Lowe each had a goal and an assist in New Canaan’s 3-1 victory over Fairfield Prep in the Division I state championship game.
Lowe and DelCarmine assisted Harmon on the game-winning goal which broke a 1-1 tie with just 2:02 remaining in the third period. Lowe’s empty-netter completed the scoring.
Experienced defensemen Jackson Crowell and Cam Lyden also had assists for the champions.
DelCarmine scored the Rams’ first goal in both their 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Notre Dame-West Haven and the following 4-0 semifinal win over Simsbury in which Lowe had a goal and an assist.
Though so many New Canaan players, coaches, fans and past New Canaan players were happy about the Rams snatching that elusive state championship, no one could’ve been more gratified with that than DelCarmine, Lowe, Crowell and Lyden
As it turned out, the third time was certainly the charm for those four because they previously skated in the previous two state finals when New Canaan lost to Darien last year and two years ago in 2024 to Notre Dame-West Haven by the identical scores of 4-1.
Lowe, who hit the 100-points milestone for his career this season, was named the state’s Player of the Year on both all-state teams he was selected to. The senior forward had 24 goals and 34 assists in his final season and finished with 104 career points (47 goals and 57 assists).
Lowe, Pozatek, and Crowell of New Canaan; along with Darien’s Jack Marisca and Alex Levey were all selected to the highest categories of all-conference and all-state teams.
They were five of the six players selected to the 2026 All-FCIAC Boys Hockey Division I First Team and they later made Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State Boys Hockey Division I First Team and the 2025-2026 GametimeCT All-State Boys Hockey First Team.
Pozatek played every game between the pipes for New Canaan. He had the same 23-2 record as his team, eight shutouts, 1.08 goals-against average, and a 0.945 save percentage. Crowell was a steady junior defenseman who also contributed 10 goals and eight assists.
Like Lowe, Marisca also got into triple digits in career points. Darien’s senior forward scored 11 goals and had a team-high 16 assists for 27 points this past season and he finished his career with 42 goals and 51 assists for 103 points.
Levey excelled as a legitimate two-way defenseman. He had 23 points (nine goals and 14 assists) and contributed to a great Darien defense which won eight games by shutout and limited its foes to 1.46 goals per game.
The CHSCA selects its all-state players to an All-State First Team and an All-State Second Team in Division I, Division II and Division III.
The GametimeCT format had 48 players who received all-state kudos – 12 apiece on a First Team, Second Team, Third Team, and Honorable Mention.
In addition to that quintet of Lowe, Crowell, Pozatek, Marisca and Levey, DelCarmine was the other player selected to the six-player All-FCIAC Division I First Team.
DelCarmine and Lyden, his New Canaan teammate, were both selected to the CHSCA Division I All-State Second Team and the GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Lyden was one of the 10 players chosen to the All-FCIAC Division I Second Team along with his teammate Harmon; Darien’s Teddy Baum, George Brown, Michael Kniffin and Repsher; Ridgefield’s Tim Gallagher and Craig Hertwig; Greenwich’s John Meehan and St. Joseph’s Sammy Ceconi.
Repsher and Baum of Darien were both selected to the GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Gallagher, Ridgefield’s junior forward, made the CHSCA Division I All-State Second Team and the GametimeCT All-State Third Team.
Senior goalie Devin Oliveri and junior forward Colin Faherty of Wilton were selected to the 2026 All-FCIAC Division II/III First Team and the CHSCA All-State Division III First Team and they were joined on the All-FCIAC Division II/III First Team by their teammate Robert Baronowski. Oliveri also made the GametimeCT All-State Boys Hockey Third Team while Faherty was GametimeCT Honorable Mention.
Also for Wilton, senior defenseman Graham Horan made the All-FCIAC Division II-III Second Team and was GametimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
CJ Berlingo of the Westhill/Stamford cooperative program, Trumbull’s Drew Kaufman, and James Lacoseglio of the McMahon/Norwalk/Staples co-op team were the other three players who selected to the six-player All-FCIAC Division II/III First Team.
Berlingo also made the CHSCA Division II All-State First Team and GametimeCT All-State Honorable Mention. Kaufman was also chosen to the CHSCA Division II All-State First Team. Lacoseglio was selected to the CHSCA Division III All-State First Team.
Westhill/Stamford forward Ethan Brown-Toussaint made the All-FCIAC Division II-III Second Team and CHSCA Division II All-State Second Team.
Mason Mountain, the McMahon/Norwalk/Staples goalie was selected to the All-FCIAC Division II-III Second Team and CHSCA All-State Division III Second Team.
New Canaan was the obvious and unanimous choice in receiving all 11 first-place votes in the Final GametimeCT 2026 Top 10 Ice Hockey Poll.
The Rams finished 23-2-0 and with a 15-game winning streak. The state championship game was a rematch of the game when New Canaan last lost, 2-1, against Fairfield Prep on Jan. 21 at Darien Ice House.
Fairfield Prep (16-9-0) was ranked No. 2 and Darien (18-6-0) was No. 3 as those two teams flip-flopped rankings from the previous state poll leading into the postseason. Prep advanced to the Division I state final with a 2-1 semifinal victory over Darien.
Notre Dame-West Haven (9-14-1), which was eliminated by New Canaan, 3-1, in the Division I state tournament quarterfinals, was ranked No. 4 and followed by Simsbury (17-7-0), Lyman Hall (17-7-1) and Cheshire (23-2-0).
Greenwich (10-13-0) was ranked No. 8 as the third FCIAC team ranked in the final state poll. East Haven (20-4-1) was No. 9 and Xavier (8-15-0) completed the Top 10.
The 11 voters on the GametimeCT state poll consisted of three media members and eight coaches, including Jones and Darien coach Mac Budd from the FCIAC.
Jones was selected the Coach of the Year by GametimeCT.
There were 47 players who received All-FCIAC honors in several categories, and they are all listed on the link below:
https://www.fciac.net/1213942/all-fciac-boys-ice-hockey-2026/