What the other pollsters/voters/rankings don't seem to realize is that the more you drop WH, the less you can raise ND-WH because WH beat them. Also, they all seem to ignore that Xavier's win over Hamden should give them any credit in terms of remaining ahead of ND-WH, a team they only lost to by one goal, at the infamous Bennett Rink.
#1 Fairfield Prep (14-3) - 1 out of state loss / 4 out of state wins
-I thought long and hard about this one but at the end of the day the Jesuits are still the best team in the state. When you have to play South Windsor, ND-Fairfield, 3 top out of state prep schools, ND-WH, Hamden, East Haven, West Haven, a top 5 prep school in NJ, Hamden again, another prep school, ND-F again, Xavier, Ridgefield and then ND-WH and every one of these Top Ten teams is fresh as ever (except maybe Hamden because of their schedule as well)...then you'll be in the same ball park, New Canaan. So a 2-3 loss after all that, to a team with an all-state goalie, that plays big and physical (I heard the refs let a lottttttt go), and that is playing with a ginormous chip on their shoulder having lost to ND-Fairfield recently is extremely understandable. You're still the team to beat, it just means that you CAN be beat now. That may be a good sign for teams when they see that they'll be facing Prep in states but Prep looks like they'll be going in hot with games remaining against North Haven, Catholic Memorial out of MA (Massachusetts teams are always a great way to prepare for CT hockey) and Amity.
#2 New Canaan (19-0)
-Might as well call it 20-0...nice job Rams! I like NC a lot more after thinking a lot this last week because the fact that they beat Hamden without their two best forwards and that they really don't have any high-profile players like a John Galiani/Greg Harney in goal, a Steve Marsico/Sam Scannell at forward or an RJ Ugolik/Nick Turner at defense. However, people around the state are going to start learning more than just Charlie Corcoran on the Rams as this team will get seeded nicely and go deep in the tournament. The only way NC gets the number one spot in my rankings is with a Prep loss but 20-0 is still an amazing regular season and they are for sure one of my favorites to win it all.
#3 Hamden (10-5-1) - 2 out of state losses
-A 4-3 win over East Haven on Wednesday and then a huge 7-0 win over West Haven on Saturday mean a very good week for Hamden. This team is, as the cliche goes, firing on all cylinders right now and all they have left is Winchester (a school from MA) and the Notre Dames left, with ND-WH being their season finale on Wed 3/2 so if they stay hot over the next two weeks and beyond the defending champs will be extremely dangerous in the tournament, as if teams weren't already worried about the Green Dragons.
#4 Notre Dame-West Haven (11-5)
-The win over Prep, by itself, balances the ND-Fairfield and WH losses for ND-WH so the rise in the rankings isn't entirely based on that. It's when you move back a little bit and look at what the win means in relation to everything else around it that you can move ND-WH ahead of Xavier. ND-WH beat X but X beat Hamden and Hamden beat ND-WH so all those really offset (Xavier really benefits the most since their game with ND-WH was closer than Hamden was to them) but ND-WH has a win over WH and ND-F previously before, not to mention Glastonbury and only a 2-3 OT loss to Prep from the time before while Xavier's only big wins are Hamden and Ridgefield. At this point, ND-WH has shown they can beat the best teams so, along with the way Xavier has been playing lately, ND gets the four spot and Xavier only falls to five. ND-WH can keep looking good (or slip up if they're not careful) this week, after their nominal final home game of the season against LaSalle Academy from RI on Monday, they go to East Haven Thursday and to Amity (ND's home ice as well) on Saturday. They finish the season on Wed 3/2 at Lou Astorino Rink, which I think will be a wicked game although the possibility exists that the teams are going to go easy since they've already made states; hopefully they use it as a final test though to show what they're made of since if the match-up comes up again it will be loser go home instead of a L that means almost nothing on the second-to-last day of the season.
# 5 Xavier (11-5) - 2 out of state losses / 1 out of state win
-The Falcons drop one spot for now but if and when X beats WH they will probably go right back above ND-WH. I think ND caught Prep at about 65-75% of their normal self (which is still pretty dang good) and that X's offense would score enough for a W if they met ND-WH again. That being said, Xavier needs to go out an execute on a consistent basis and their remaining schedule presents itself nicely for them to do that: St. John's in MA on Monday (see note above Prep, these big hard-nosed MA teams are great preparation for CT teams), then Conard on Wednesday which won't allow X to let up at all, #8 West Haven Saturday and then ND-Fairfield the following Wednesday 3/2. All of those are road games which, although X may pick up home ice for the first round, makes good practice for any team going into states.
#6 Ridgefield (14-4) - 2 out of state wins
-The Tigers joined the club of having lost to Prep, 3-5 this past Wed, but they did get a nice 8-1 win over DII Westhill on Sat. 8-1 is what you want to do against a lesser team when they're all you have the schedule for the week; it shows that you deserve to be in the Top Ten like you are, without leaving any doubt to that fact. Ridgefield ends the season with two quality games: vs #10 G-bury Mon and @ #9 St. Joseph Wed in what is sure to be an awesome game!
#7 South Windsor (15-3) - 2 out of state wins
-I tried to get out and see them on Saturday evening but I simply had too much to do. Nonetheless, they are quite good this year and will make some serious noise in states...by the way, with the points they're projected to finish with, they'll be a pretty high seed so that will help them even more. The Bobcats beat North Haven and ND-Fairfield this past week, like their SCC counter-parts already did, so that was good. SW will finish their season next week with DII Enfield on Monday and Senior Night on Saturday against Tri-Town (both are home games at the South Windsor Arena).
#8 West Haven (8-5-2)
-Why the switch with S Windsor? SW's wins put them on the same level as WH and since SW won the head-to-head between the two, it's pretty simple. Plus, the Blue Devils only had one game last week and they got slaughtered by Hamden 0-7 so they had nothing to help their case. WH plays Milford Co-op on Monday, Tri-Town on Wed and then #5 Xavier on Saturday so if they win the last two that will help them. The Milford win, along with games against North Haven and Simsbury on Mon 3/1 and Tues 3/2 respectively are just for WH to pick up some points for seeding in the state tournament (although it looks they still may end up in the bottom 8, unless they beat X).
#9 St. Joseph (14-3) - 3 out of state wins
-St. Joseph did what they needed to this past week with wins 4-2 over Amity, 3-0 over Darien, and 5-3 over Greenwich. Those 3 out of state wins back in Decemeber help the Cadet's seeding in states so much since they count like a win over a DI CT team that is making states (6 points + 3 bonus points), regardless of whether or not the out of state team is really that good. They will almost certainly have home ice in the first round but I don't think their opponent will be anyone they can simply overlook. St. Joseph has a busy week next week with DII title contender Cheshire on Monday and then at DII Stamford on Tuesday. Also, I'm excited for the #6 Ridgefield @ #9 St. Joseph game on Wednesday night (9pm) and if I can free up enough time, I will make the trek out to the Shelton Rinks for that one; you should too!
#10 Glastonbury (12-4-1)
-Who else could you put at the 10 spot? Amity and Darien are good but have some really bad losses. G-bury has a lot of talent and it's just that they haven't had many chances to get the big wins so do not underestimate them at all; 10th best in the state is still pretty darn good! They will get an extremely important shot coming up on Monday too as they travel out to the Winter Garden Ice Arena to take on #6 Ridgefield at 2pm. They finish the rest of their regular season next week with Simsbury at home on Wednesday and a trip to Enfield Twin Rinks for both teams' season finale at Fermi on Saturday.
This upcoming week will be school vacation for the rest of the schools that didn't have it this past week and that is a lot schools, many of which are in the Top Ten. Hopefully that doesn't affect them at all or if it does it has a positive effect as the players get more sleep and are under less stress (which yes, is also a bad thing sometimes but hopefully the parents, coaches and players THEMSELVES have good self-discipline). Coaching will very key this next week!
PLAYOFFS HOME ICE NOTE: I can't confirm this is 100% true yet but I was at the Yale @ Quinnipiac game on Friday 2/18 and from reputable sources I have heard that since Yale, #3 in the nation right now, is doing so well this year, they will have home ice in the playoffs, both ECAC and NCAA; therefore, Ingalls Rink will only be used for the state tournament finals, not semifinals as well like in years past. The major impact from this too is that the semifinals will then either be at some other neutral site or, to make getting ice time easier, the CIAC can simply have them be at the higher seed. Home ice may prove to be very crucial this year, especially with the number of teams that play with so much emotion and feed off their own crowd (not to mention the general parity amongst the competition so every little advantage one can get is actually a big deal)!
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