Another great week of hockey and now another difficult job of ranking the top ten teams in the state; the bottom is weak but that just means the state is strong. POST-SEASON UPDATE: South Windsor, Notre Dame-West Haven and East Haven are the first three teams to clinch berths in the state tournament, all doing so this past week and all for the DI tournament.
#1 Fairfield Prep (7-2) (5-0)
-Things are still good on top as the Jesuits won their one and only game this week, 3-1 against Amity on Wednesday. That gave their coach, Matt Sather, his 200th career win (not all of which were in CT) and showed Prep isn't going to be upset by some bottom-of-the-pack team like North Haven did on Saturday against Amity. The Jesuits have a solid SCC week up ahead hosting West Haven on Wednesday and Cheshire on Saturday. Although not top ten games, Prep will be working on their conference record, the only way to win the conference, and preparing for a big showcase at the Prudential Center against other top hockey teams from other state at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on Friday 1/27 and Saturday 1/28.
#2 Hamden (6-3) (6-1)
-After thinking long and hard, I have concluded that Hamden deserves to be ahead of both ND-WH and Ridgefield and thus number two in the rankings. I think they would beat either head-to-head and I'm going to tell you why right now. Although all three teams have different strengths, weaknesses and overall style, I think each game would come down to a few keys. Ridgefield plays exceptional defense, I would say even better than ND-WH, but they way that they beat ND were some lapses in defense that I do not think Hamden would make given the same chance. Therefore, Hamden would not have to score a lot to beat the Tigers, like Xavier needed to do. Hamden and ND would be an extremely close game, closer than even Ridgefield versus ND was and would be again, but I give the Dragons the edge because I think that game would come down to goalies Luc Amatrud (ND) versus Andy Vargas (Hamden). That being said, Hamden, just like Prep, never stops getting better, even if it hurts their record, and we have seen that pay off with one of the two winning every year since 2007 (Hamden 2009 + 2010 and Prep 2007, 2008 + 2011) and winning or coming in second every year this millennium except 2002 (06, 03: Hamden 2nd; 05, 04, 01, 00: Prep 1st). The point is, Hamden's two out-of-state losses this week only made them better since St. John's (Shrewsbury, MA) and Hingham (MA) were #5 and #22 in a state that breeds hockey players. Hamden also beat #5 Xavier 3-2 on Wednesday, although I think that game should only have 2-2 and that Xavier could beat them again. Unfortunately, the two teams do not meet again in the regular season though. Hamden does have two road games this week, at Notre Dame-Fairfield on Thursday and West Haven on Saturday.
#3 Ridgefield (7-1) (5-1)
-Ridgefield did what they had to this week by beating formerly #2 Notre Dame-West Haven fair and square on this past Wednesday and then topping St. Joseph 3-2 on Saturday. They also blew out Westhill 8-0 on Monday, their third shutout (11-0, 9-0 and now 8-0) and fifth game scoring at least five goals. The Tigers move into more of their FCIAC schedule this week at Stamford on Wednesday, when I expect they will officially qualify for the state tournament, and then at Greenwich on Thursday.
#4 Notre Dame-West Haven (8-2) (8-2)
-One of my all-time favorite quotes about sports I learned from the show Two-A-Days: "It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back." I think this applies perfectly to ND with regards to their 1-2 loss to Ridgefield. The Green Knights still have extremely high quality wins over New Canaan, Greenwich, Simsbury, #10 Darien, Amity, #9 North Haven and most recently Notre Dame-Fairfield this past Saturday. None of those games were decided by any less than three goals for ND. The Green Knights also have a 2-1 win over Cheshire but their losses are 3-4 to #1 Fairfield Prep and 1-2 to #3 Ridgefield. That means ND-WH can certainly still vie for the top spot in the state and the rest of their schedule presents them with a chance to bounce back very high from the loss last Wednesday. This week ND-WH hosts #6 Glastonbury on Monday and Trinity Catholic on Wednesday. Then, they go to #5 Xavier on Saturday for what will be the game of the week! Of ND's 7 remaining games after that, 5 are against top ten teams and the other two are ND-F and West Haven, certainly no walk in the park. Those five games feature the other two Haven's (#7 E Haven and #9 N Haven), a rematch with top dog #1 Fairfield Prep and then the match-up I'm most looking forward to: #2 Hamden, twice (home and away)! Rush Propst is a great coach.
#5 Xavier (6-4) (4-2)
-"Losing" your only game of the week doesn't look too good does it? Except when its only by one goal to the now number two Hamden Green Dragons and one of their "goals" didn't even go in the net. Regardless of that controversy, we must live with the result and it still says that the Falcons can beat Hamden, they just came up a little short on Wednesday. The exact same thing can be said about X's 4-5 OT loss to now #3 Ridgefield two Saturday's ago, 1/7; to almost beat a team with that defense that took now #4 ND-WH is very impressive. Notre Dame better watch out for Xavier this Saturday when the two meet at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Xavier's home rink. The Falcons already beat #9 North Haven and Notre Dame-Fairfield to prove they're good. They also beat Cheshire by twice the score ND did (4-2 versus 2-1). The Falcons also have an away game Monday afternoon (2pm) at New Canaan, a good test to get ready for ND (ND has big games that may wear them out before they play Xavier).
#6 Glastonbury (7-1) (7-1)
-Still sitting at 7-1, G-bury is in good position to lock up a spot in the DI tournament this week...but it won't be easy. They have top-ten games but very far apart. First off, they go to #4 Notre Dame-West Haven for a showdown that can be a big statement for them. Then, they don't play again until Saturday at home but it is the fierce CCC-North rivalry with #8 South Windsor. The Thomahawks did beat surging Simsbury 2-1 last week and DII Wethersfield 6-3 but those games will look like nothing compared to the week they have ahead of them.
#7 East Haven (8-1-1) (8-1-1)
-This is where is gets hard but nine games into the season, I think it is safe to say that the Yellow Jacket have improved from their 5-5 tie with Stamford at the beginning of the season. West Haven and North Haven have to deal with losing to Simsbury and Amity respectively just this past week. East Haven's only loss being by one goal to another top team looks pretty good now. I understand that they haven't played #4 ND-WH, #2 Hamden or #5 Xavier like #9 North Haven but E Haven beat N Haven 4-3 in OT so that gives them the edge for now.
#8 South Windsor (8-2) (6-2)
-So basically I am going to "forgive" so Conard loss because everybody does have a bad day. I'm not going to forget about it completely (or how weak the CCC is) but SW's 6-1 win over Conard a few days before the loss helps mitigate the loss. Covering that loss up, SW beat Simsbury 4-1 (making them better than W Haven), a big 5-1 wins over Fermi/Enfield and St. Joseph and then a convincing 7-0 blowout of East Catholic this past Wednesday. The Bobcats are on the way up and they have a good chance to prove how good they are with their only game this week: Saturday at #6 Glastonbury.
#9 North Haven (4-5) (4-5)
-A 3-4 OT loss to a somewhat talented Amity is bad but not that bad. N Haven's major problem is a lack of other quality wins now beating West Haven 5-4 isn't as good as it used to be. N Haven also beat Simsbury 4-1 but Brookfield/Bethe;/Danbury (6-1 W) is a DIII team and Daniel Hand (8-1 W) is a DII team. Yes those are both good wins but those are North Haven's only four wins and they do have five losses as well now. They take on pesky Tri-Town on Monday and then go to #10 Darien on Saturday.
#10 Darien (5-3) (5-3)
-Darien didn't move up or down despite South Windsor entrance to the top ten and West Haven's departure because Darien has a predicament similar to North Haven's; the Blue Wave have talent but a weak body of work to prove it. They beat the solid Notre Dame-Fairfield Lancers twice and in the span of three days but only beat previously win-less Wilton 4-1 and then 2-7 Trinity Catholic 1-0. What I do like about the Blue Wave is their 6-1 win over New Canaan a team that still looks pretty solid this year and is in my top fifteen. Darien only lost 5-6 in OT to West Haven, an amazing comeback by the Blue Devils and also only 0-2 to #2 Hamden and 1-4 to #4 ND-WH. The Blue Wave get their own shot at Greenwich on Wednesday and then a game I'm very excited for against #9 North Haven on Saturday, both of which are at home.
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