After spending a enriching evening surrounded by hockey, I simply exuberant for these championship games and the state tournament's beginning, next Wednesday.
#10 St. Joseph (3 seed) vs #2 New Canaan (1 seed) @ 4pm at Terry Connors Rink
-This is the FCIAC Championship and although I'd rather see Ridgefield here instead of St. Joseph, this will still be a very good game! New Canaan can definetly use the good competition as they will face the 16 seed Greenwich next Wednesday so their next quality game will not be until next Saturday. St. Joseph can pull off the upset and would love to get some momentum for their first round game against Amity, arguably the hottest team going into the tournament. Prediction at bottom.
North Branford (3 seed) vs Tri-Town (1 seed) @ 5 at International Skating Center (Simsbury)
-This is the NHC Championship; North Branford comes in with the momentum but Tri-Town is clearly the better team. This game will be good for Tri-Town to work on playing at the top of their game going into their first round match-up with #7 South Windsor.
Daniel Hand (3 seed) vs Guilford (1 seed) @ 6 at Bennett Rink
-This is the SCC-DII Championship. Hand and Guilford played back on 1/22 and Guilford only won 2-1. That, in addition to the fact that Hand is far from a bad team (read Friday's results, they've played every team close) and Guilford is slightly overrated in my mind since they still played a lot of DIII teams this year (not saying they're not good, just not as good as most people think). I expect this to be an extremely good game and, really, what game Bennett Rink isn't?
Watertown-Pomperaug (2 seed) vs Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury (1 seed) @ 720 at Danbury Ice Arena
-This is the SWC Championship game. W-P is a very good team and is coming off their very good win over Newton in the semifinals. B-B-D is technically the number one seed in DII but they did not play that many quality teams during the season. The two played back on 1/15 and B-B-D won 3-2 so anything can happen in this one!
CCC Championships: One, they are all at the Koeppel Community Sports Center (Tinity College) and feature the top two seeds based on division records (not conference).
Newington-Berlin vs Windsor-East Granby Avon @ 2pm
-This is the CCC-South Championship; W-EG-A has notable wins over Enfield, Farmington and Watertown-Pomperaug. Their losses came to Wethersfield, Milford Co-op (W-EG-A beat them later in the season though), Enfield and only 1-3 to Tri-Town. N-B, on the other hand, tied Enfield, lost to Farmington, W-P, East Catholic and twice to W-EG-A: 2-3 on 12/22 and 2-4 on 2/4. They did beat Wethersfield, in OT, but you can see who I'm picking in this one on the bottomof the page.
Farmington vs East Catholic @ 445
-This is the CCC-East Championship; Northwest Catholic was the two seed up until the last minute and this game will help both teams get ready for the DII tournament next Wednesday! On 1/29 East won 4-2 and on 2/16 they won again 5-1. Farmington had a shaky season, losing to NWC and most of the other top CCC teams. However, they split with W-P, beat N-B and have a key win over Conard. East Catholic beat NWC twice, split with Wethersfield and only lost to #8 Glastonbury and Cheshire in OT. On paper, these teams seem similar but I think one clearly stands out above the other and I have them winning this game by at least 2 goals.
#8 Glastonbury vs #7 South Windsor @ 7
-This is the CCC-North Championship and the game we have all been waiting to see again! These two teams spit the regular season series: G-bury 3-1 on 12/22 and SW 4-3 on 1/22. These two teams are almost identical on paper and when you watch them play but I think that my pick, Glastonbury, is just coming into the game hotter 6-0-2 since losing to Conard 1-2 in OT, including ties with Amity and #6 Ridgefield and wins over North Haven and ND-Fairfield. The other team, South Windosr, is 7-1-0 since sliding past Conard 1-0 with a win over #9 West Haven, North Haven and ND-F too, and Tri-Town twice with the loss being #3 Hamden. I think that Glastonbury will also be helped by the underdog mentality and having lost the last meeting between the two it gives them a little extra motivation, not to mention they would like to prove themselves even more before they face #4 Notre Dame-West Haven in their first round game. I feel like South Windsor will just be a little more complacent, knowing they landed the 3 seed in DI and a first round game with Tri-Town, regardless of this game's outcome. One way or the other, I expect a great game as these two face off in the CCC-North Championship for the 3rd straight year (G-bury won in '09 and SW in '10)!
PICKS: NC, Tri-Town, Guilford, W-P, W-EG-A, East, G-bury
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