It was quite an impressive boys’ ice hockey season for the FCIAC.
Two teams, perennial powers Darien and New Canaan, each won a postseason tournament championship and were ranked as the top two teams in the final state poll.
Darien won the 2025 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Ice Hockey Division I Tournament with a 4-1 victory over New Canaan in the state championship game 18 days after New Canaan increased its record to 22 conference championships with a 4-1 victory over Ridgefield in FCIAC tournament final.
Darien and New Canaan were ranked 1-2, respectively, in the Final 2025 GameTimeCT Boys Hockey Top 10 Poll and Ridgefield was ranked sixth.
In addition to preventing New Canaan from winning two championships in the same season, Darien’s victory in the Division I state championship game denied the Rams an unbeaten season.
Darien’s victory was considered an upset given that coach Mac Budd’s Blue Wave came into the state championship showdown with a 17-5-1 record and New Canaan was 23-0-1 at that point, including a 4-2 win and a 1-1 tie against Darien during the regular season.
But there’s also that tried-and-true sports adage that goes something along the lines of: Any time these two teams play against each other, anything can happen. And that adage always applies to showdowns between these two bordering town rivals who both have Darien Ice House as their home rink.
So, on this state championship Saturday of March 22 at Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena, Darien’s junior goalie Schafer Repsher was stellar between the pipes in stopping 25 of 26 shots while Alexander Rentz had a goal and an assist to lead the Blue Wave to the state title with that 4-1 victory.
After Rentz scored the game’s first goal in the first period, Darien took that 1-0 lead into the third period and Gavin Samame and James Troy each scored a goal in that final period to stake Darien to a 3-0 lead.
George Persinger, Michael Kniffin, Harry Whitney and Rentz had assists on Darien’s first three goals.
Repsher shut out the potent Rams for 40 minutes until New Canaan’s Bauer Gammill ended Repsher’s shutout bid with 4:59 left in regulation. Darien’s Jack Marisca scored an empty-net goal with 41 seconds left.
Darien finished with an 18-5-1 record and New Canaan was 23-1-1.
Top-seeded New Canaan, No. 2 Darien, No. 3 Ridgefield, and the fourth-seeded and defending champion Notre Dame-West Haven Green Knights were the four teams in the 12-team field which drew first-round byes directly into the quarterfinals of the Division I state tournament.
New Canaan advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory over eighth-seeded Northwest Catholic. Darien got there with a 4-3 overtime victory over No. 10 Xavier. Ridgefield finished its season with a 14-10 record after being eliminated by sixth-seeded Simsbury, 4-3, in overtime.
Darien was so very close to being eliminated in the quarterfinals against Xavier as the Blue Wave had a 3-2 deficit with less than half a minute remaining in the third period. Aidan Elders scored the dramatic tying goal with 20 seconds left and Alex Levey netted the OT game-winner.
Troy scored three goals in Darien’s last two games as he had a pair of goals in the 3-1 semifinal victory over Simsbury.
Things were also a bit precarious for New Canaan’s Rams when their semifinal contest against defending state champion Notre Dame-West Haven was tied at 1-1 late in the third period and ND-West Haven was on the power play.
Cam Lyden’s shorthanded goal with 2:14 remaining gave the Rams a 2-1 lead in their eventual 3-1 victory. Anthony DelCarmine and Bryce Lyden also scored goals for the winners.
New Canaan’s goalie Brendan Harmon stopped 22 of 23 shots in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Northwest Catholic and he had another 19 saves when the Rams dethroned ND-West Haven.
DelCarmine scored a combined five goals in New Canaan’s two victories in the 2025 FCIAC Boys Hockey Tournament. DelCarmine and Jack Thompson each had a pair of goals to lead New Canaan’s balanced and potent scoring attack in which eight Rams scored a goal in the 10-1 semifinal victory over Greenwich.
DelCarmine followed that up with his hat trick in that 4-1 victory over Ridgefield in which coach Clark Jones’ defending champion Rams won their fourth FCIAC championship in the last six seasons.
Rogan Lowe had a goal and two assists for the Rams. Angelo Ciminiello scored Ridgefield’s goal to cut the deficit to 3-1 midway through the third period before New Canaan’s Lowe added an empty netter with 1:19 left.
Ridgefield defeated the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe cooperative program, 8-2, in the first round of the FCIAC tournament.
The Tigers advanced to the championship with a 2-1 overtime win over Darien. Ciminiello scored the sudden-victory goal in OT for Ridgefield. Clayton Walsh scored the first goal and sophomore goalie James Britton had a great game with 33 saves for Ridgefield.
Greenwich defeated St. Joseph, 4-3, in the other first-round game. New Canaan and Darien each drew byes as the top two seeds in the six-team tournament.
There were many players from the conference who earned postseason honors by being selected to varying levels of All-FCIAC or all-state teams and plenty of them were so honored multiple times.
Bryce Lyden, Brendon Harmon and Brayden Robie of New Canaan, Darien’s Jack Marisca, Ridgefield’s Mason Bloechle, and Greenwich’s Boden Farmer were the six players selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Boys Hockey First Team.
Lyden and Harmon of New Canaan, Darien’s Marisca, and Ridgefield’s Bloechle were the four FCIAC players who received the highest level of postseason honors three times as they were also named to the Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State Division I First Team and the GameTimeCT All-State First Team.
The coaches and media both acknowledged Bryce Lyden as the state’s best player. The coaches’ group had Lyden as its MVP on the CHSCA All-State Division I First Team and Lyden was the Player of the Year on the GameTimeCT All-State First Team voted on by the media.
Lyden, a senior forward, was New Canaan’s team leader with 25 goals and 37 points this year and he and he ended up with 102 career points with his 58 goals and 44 assists.
The CHSCA All-State Division I First Team consisted of eight forwards, five defensemen, and three goalies for 16 total players. The dozen players on the GameTimeCT All-State First Team had six forwards, four defensemen, and Harmon was one of the two goalies.
Harmon, New Canaan’s senior goalie, had five shutouts and a 1.3 goals-against average in his 24 games.
Marisca, Darien’s slick junior forward, scored 11 goals and had 17 assists to lead the Blue Wave with 28 points and he increased his career total to 74 points on 30 goals and 44 assists.
Bloechle, Ridgefield’s senior defenseman, finished his career with 35 points and 10 goals after having seven goals and a dozen assists this season.
Farmer, Greenwich’s junior defenseman, was also selected to the CHSCA All-State Division I First Team and the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Robie, New Canaan’s senior forward, made the CHSCA All-State Division I Second Team and the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
George Persinger, Darien’s senior defenseman, joined Bryce Lyden, Harmon, Marisca and Bloechle as one of the five FCIAC players who made GameTimeCT All-State First Team. Persinger, who had 20 career points, also made the CHSCA Division I All-State Second Team and was among the nine players selected to the All-FCIAC Boys Hockey Division I Second Team.
The other eight players on that All-FCIAC Division I Second Team were Persinger’s Darien teammates Aidan Elders and Schafer Repsher, New Canaan’s Jack Thompson and Cam Lyden, Ridgefield’s Angelo Ciminiello, St. Joseph’s Cole Breunig, and the Fairfield Co-op duo of Ian Morgan and Rhett Davies.
Repsher, Darien’s junior goalie, was also selected to the CHSCA All-State Division I Second Team and the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Elders, a senior forward for Darien, made the CHSCA All-State Division I Second Team and the GameTimeCT All-State Third Team. Darien’s senior forward Mark McNamara was selected to the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Thompson, New Canaan’s sophomore forward, was on the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team. Cam Lyden, New Canaan’s junior defenseman, made the GameTimeCT All-State Third Team.
Ciminiello, Ridgefield’s senior forward, made CHSCA All-State Division I Second Team and GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
Breunig, St. Joseph’s forward, also made the CHSCA All-State Division I Second Team.
Tim Gallagher, and James Britton and Craig Hertwig of Ridgefield, Darien’s Alex Levey, St. Joseph’s Caden Mitchell, and Greenwich’s Trent O’Neil earned All-FCIAC Division I Honorable Mention.
The six players selected to the All-FCIAC Division II/III First Team were Cooper Paul and Harry Goodburn of the McMahon/Norwalk/Staples cooperative program, Nick Eberhart and Devin Oliveri of Wilton, CJ Berlingo of Westhill/Stamford Co-op, and Trumbull’s Drew Kaufman.
The seven players who made the All-FCIAC Division II/III Second Team included Nick Oliveri, Will Begnal and Robert Baronowski of Wilton, Ian Duggan and Max Zelikman of Westhill/Stamford, Mac Lawton of McMahon/Norwalk/Staples, and Trumbull’s Danny Dedvukaj.
Berkeley Johnson and Mason Mountain of McMahon/Norwalk/Staples, Ethan Brown-Toussaint of Westhill/Stamford, and Trumbull’s John DiSimone were All-FCIAC Honorable Mention.
Mac Budd was the FCIAC Coach of the Year in his 10th season as Darien’s head coach. Budd won his first state championship as head coach in 2016 when he guided the Blue Wave to a second consecutive title one year after he was an assistant coach for Chris Gerwig, so Darien’s third state championship in the last 11 seasons was Budd’s second state title as the head coach.