This is why I love postseason hockey!!!!! Oh boy, what a great day it was in hockey today! I hardly know where to start so much happened. Based on tonight's scores, I feel more confident in one of the picks I had in each the DI, DII, and DIII tournaments. However, I feel less confident about an upset and a non-upset I have in DI. I will post my bracket AFTER I do the new (and final edition of) rankings. Also, to bring you better predictions than ones I have been making, I will have a special surprise tomorrow. I have been getting a lot of attention recently so, once again, I wanted to thank everyone for reading; I really cannot thank you enough, it means so much to me!
#10 St. Joseph 3 vs #1 New Canaan 4 OT at Terry Connors Rink - FCIAC Championship
-Close but no cigar (yes that is a saying but I am also going for the USA/Canada reference)! Very good showing for St. Joseph as I had them losing to Ridgefield in the semis but, like I've also said a million times, postseason hockey is an entirely different game! This will give St. Joseph a lot of confidence going into their first round game with Amity, one that many think they could lose. More importantly, however, hockey fans, coaches and players across the state see this score and cannot help but think, "New Canaan is slipping up!" A 1-0 win over Darien in the semifinals and now they get taken to OT by St. Joseph in the finals. New Canaan beat St. Joseph 6-2 and 5-2 in the regular season..that's all I'm saying. New Canaan doesn't really have to worry about Greenwich first round but after that their road to Yale and the state title gets extremely hard! [I would like to congratulate NC on 23-0 going into the state tournament...very impressive.]
North Branford 3 vs Tri-Town 4 at International Skating Center (Simsbury) - NHC Championship
-First off, congratulations to the Tri-Town Thunderbirds, this will certainly be the apex of their season; a first round match-up with #7 South Windsor isn't looking good. I am also slightly surprised by that NB (a 7-14 DII team) put up 3 on them, not a good sign if they hope to upset SW in the state tournament. I am happy for them that they won this though and 13-9 (13-10 if they lose to SW) is still pretty good.
Daniel Hand 3 vs Guilford 1 at Bennett Rink - SCC-DII Championship
-Hats off to the Hand Tigers! Just one day after upset Cheshire and avenging a one-goal regular season loss, they do the exact same thing to Guilford. They find a way to win when it matters most and that extremely dangerous in the postseason. Hand, the 7 seed, plays in the first round of the DII tournament, against Farmington and I think they will cruise in that one. What's next? Cheshire again and you better believe that game just got one thousand times more interesting! The big question is, if they beat Cheshire again, can they get past a FCIAC team like Wilton in the semis. Still, I think the Tigers would be happy just to get there and they start the quest to do so on Tuesday with Farmingotn at 7pm @ the Northford Ice Pavillion. Did I say Guilford was overrated? Who would have thought the 10-10-1 Tigers had a chance against the 18-2-1 Indians? Anyways, Guilford has a bye in the first-round of DII and faces the 8/9 game winner so I see them cruising to the semifinals.
Watertown-Pomperaug 6 vs Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury 1 at Danbury Ice Arena - SWC Championship
-Not as close as I expected, but I did say by at least two goals. W-P is going into the DIII tournament on fire, their only problem is that they most likely will face the 5 seed, Newington-Berlin, in the quarterfinals (W-P has a bye but N-B plays Sheehan), who also won big over a good DIII team tonight. B-B-D (1 seed in DIII, earned a bye) gets the 8/9 winner in the quarters and if Northwest Catholic gets there like I think they will, that will another very good game. W-P and B-B-D could meet again (for the 4th time) in the semifinals at Yale..oh how nice that would be!
CCC Championship were all at the Koeppel Community Sports Center at Trinity College:
Newington-Berlin 5 vs Windsor-East Granby-Avon 0 - CCC-South Championship
-Not only did N-B pull off the upset, but they shut W-EG-A out! This makes N-B's potential game with W-P an extremely interesting one and makes Staples-Weston-Shelton's trip to the championship game look even easier. W-EG-A, the 3 seed in DIII, has a bye first round but N-B plays Sheehan at home on Tuesday at 8pm. The game at six is Northwest Catholic's vs Rockville-Manchester-Stafford but I would like to clarify the CIAC's bracket, since it had me confused as well: the "Connecticut Skating Center" in Newington is just the Newington Arena; I don't know why the CIAC put that because I looked around could not find out why anyone would call the Newington Arena that.
Farmington 1 vs East Catholic 6 - CCC-East Championship
-The lone favorite in the CCC to win tonight, East Catholic did so in impressive fashion! Farmington scored first but East added two before the first was over. Then, in the second, they scored 9 seconds in, then a minute and ten seconds in, knocking Farmington's goalie out of the game. The Eagles added two more before it was over and none on their two powerplays though. Besides a failure to execute on the PP today, East's weakness is clearly their goalie. Although they had me believing it for a little while, I think Wilton, their quarterfinal opponent in the DII tournament (both have first round byes), will be too much for them. Danny DeFliippo is speedy and agressive for East and he can create a lot of offense with the line that he is on. Nick Tallo had a big game for the Eagles with one goal and at least two assits (I think he had another) but East really spread out the wealth as Jared Nelson had two goals and an assist and Michael Scanlon had a goal and an assist. Futhermore, Patrick O'Connor and Jordan Sabin scored. Dominic Bazzano scored for Farmington. Congrats again to the Eagles who avenged thier loss to Farmington in the CCC-East Championship game last year.
#8 Glastonbury 2 vs #7 South Windsor 1 - CCC-North Championship
-The moment you have all been waiting for! Glastonbury gets revenge for January 22nd's loss to SW and more importantly, the 2010 CCC-North Championship game loss to SW! I would just like to point out that I also predicted this outcome correctly because G-bury is just playing inspired hockey right now. Two goals in the final three minutes of the game on a goalie that had been playing lights out all game is exactly what I'm talking about. Glastonbury dominated early and often in the first period; Kyle Benson had some shots for South Windsor but the Tomahawks were all over SW's defense and even had one shot they hit the post but neither team scored. Off a pass by Joseph Bonazelli, Benson found the back of the net from around the face-off zone, with 3:05 left in the second. South Windsor goalie Christian Marchi played strong the whole game and didn't budge the rest of the period, despite Glastonbury's relentless and powerful shots, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead heading into the third. Glastonbury never really gave up, especially Ethan Holdaway, and with 2:59 left in the game, the rebound of Aaron Mandell's shot was put in by Sam Scannell to tie things up at one apiece. The fans and team went crazy and everyone knew this was going to have the big-time finish we all were expecting. Not even 90 seconds later, Mandell scored the game winner, credit Avery Clair on the assist, and the place, well at least one half of it, erupted! The Tomahawks held on for the last 1:45 and pulled off the upset, if you can call it that. Finding a way to win late in games and an extremely good goal tender in Chris Hemhauser will take them far in the postseason and got them the CCC-North Championship. The question is, will it take them past Notre Dame-West Haven in the first round of the DI tournament. I will break down that game on Tuesday but basically G-bury got their top defenseman, Sean Carfi, back form injury since they lost to ND-WH in the regular season but this game is being playing down at Bennett Rink so that presents a huge advantage for the Green Knights. Wednesday will be a spectacular day for high school hockey, even better than today if one can believe that!
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