Fairfield Prep’s Mason Whitney celebrates after scoring his first goal of the game against Notre Dame-West Haven during an ice hockey game at Bennett Rink, West Haven on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (File photo)
The postseason is right around the corner.
The SCC/SWC Division II starts on Tuesday and then the leagues Division I and III teams start on Saturday. While the FCIAC and the CCC tournaments are scheduled to start on Monday.
With the postseason beginning, this poll is the final poll of the regular season and just like the preseason poll, Fairfield Prep is the No. 1 team.
The Jesuits have been the No. 1 team for every poll, but the Feb. 17 poll — which was after the first week of the season.
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Fairfield Prep added to its first place votes and have 12, and No. 2 Notre Dame-West Haven received the final top vote. Despite its first loss of the season, Fairfield co-op remains at No. 3 and Darien at No. 4.
There was a shuffle between the next five teams. New Canaan jumped up to No. 5, Xavier to No. 6. Greenwich, with a loss to St. Joseph, fell two spots to No. 7. Ridgefield jumped up to No. 8 and Sheehan dropped a spot to No. 9, despite two dominating wins.
Hand, which returned to game play this week and picked up two wins, and remained at No. 10.
See you all when the tournaments are over.
| TEAM (1st place votes) | REC | PTS | LAST | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 1. FAIRFIELD PREP (12) | 10-1-0 | 129 | 1 | |||
| Last week's results: tied Notre Dame-West Haven 2-2; def. Notre Dame-Fairfield 6-1; def. Hamden 7-0. The Bottom Line: The Jesuits finish the regular season where they started, No. 1 in the poll. If the top line led by Mason Whitney continues to play at the level they have been playing at, capturing a second straight conference title is theirs for the taking. |
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 | 2. NOTRE DAME-WH (1) | 9-1-0 | 117 | 2 | |||
| Last week's results: tied Fairfield Prep 2-2; def. Xavier 4-1; def. West Haven 4-3 (OT) The Bottom Line: If NDWH wants to be the No. 1 team when it’s all said and done, it will need to take care of business in the conference tournament. Connor Smith is playing his A-game right now and a hot goalie can do wonders in the postseason. |
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 | 3. FAIRFIELD CO-OP | 7-1-1 | 100 | 3 | |||
| Last week's results: def. St. Joseph 6-1; lost to Ridgefield 6-5 (OT). The Bottom Line: The OT loss to Ridgefield ended Fairfield co-op’s chance for an unbeaten regular season, but not enough to drop the co-op in the poll. |
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 | 4. DARIEN | 5-3-2 | 93 | 4 | |||
| Last week's results: def. New Canaan 4-1. The Bottom Line: With the FCIAC tournament starting on Monday, are the Blue Wave getting hot at the right time? If they are going to make a postseason run, Sam Erickson will need to be THE guy. |
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 | 5. NEW CANAAN | 5-5-1 | 60 | 6 | |||
| Last week's results: def. Ridgefield 1-0; lost to Darien 4-1. The Bottom Line: The Rams rallied to win the FCIAC’s last year. Can they do it again? Yes of course, Beau Johnson is still their goalie. |
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 | 6. XAVIER | 7-3-1 | 56 | 7 | |||
| Last week's results: def. Notre Dame-Fairfield 6-2; tied Northwest Catholic 2-2; lost to Notre Dame-West Haven 4-1; def. West Haven 5-3. The Bottom Line: Xavier is slowly making its way up the poll and a potential date with NDWH in the conference semifinals could be a fun one. |
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 | 7. GREENWICH | 5-4-0 | 54 | 5 | |||
| Last week's results: def. Westhill/Stamford 4-2; lost to St. Joseph 1-0. The Bottom Line: In five of the Cardinals’ nine games, they have either shut their opponent out or have been shut out. After scoring 13 goals in their first two games, the Cardinals have scored three or more goals just twice. |
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 | 8. RIDGEFIELD | 4-7-0 | 29 | 9 | |||
| Last week's results: lost to New Canaan 1-0; def. Fairfield co-op 6-5 (OT). The Bottom Line: Nine of the Tigers’ 11 games have come against teams that have been firmly in the top 7 of this poll all season. If you’re going to grow young players, this is how you do it. |
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 | 9. SHEEHAN | 10-1-0 | 27 | 8 | |||
| Last week's results: def. New Milford 9-0, def. North Haven 4-1. The Bottom Line: The Titans are scoring at a 5.8 goals per game clip. Good luck to the rest of the SCC/SWC Division II teams. |
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 | 10. HAND | 4-1-0 | 23 | 10 | |||
| Last week's results: def. North Branford 9-2, def. Guilford 5-2. The Bottom Line: The Tigers returned from quarantine and promptly scored 14 goals in two games. With only five games played are they ready for the postseason to start? We will see. |
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| Dropped out: None First-place votes in parentheses and points tabulated on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Results through Tues. March 16 |
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| Others receiving votes: Northwest Catholic (7-1-2) 19; East Catholic (9-2-0) 5; Trumbull (9-1-0) 2; West Haven (4-5-0) 1. | |||||||
| The following voted: Media: Luke Devoe, CTHSHockey.org; Erik Dobratz, WTNH-8; Tim Jensen, Patch; Ben Klein, CTHSHockey.org; Greg Lederer, Cheshire Herald; Mike Madera, Elm City Newspapers; Dan Nowak, New Haven Register; Pete Paguaga, GameTimeCT; Dave Stewart, New Canaan Advertiser/Darien Times; Jim Stout, MaxPreps.com. Coaches: Shaun Gallagher, Ridgefield, Matt Sather, Fairfield Prep; Larry Viera, Notre Dame-West Haven. Poll compiled by Pete Paguaga |
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