Not all Connecticut high school players however have the abilities to play at a prep school such as Avon Old Farms, shown here after their 2008 New England Prep Hockey Championship victory. Photo courtesy of hockeybarn.com

In Connecticut, there is one main junior hockey team, the Connecticut Jr Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack Jr A- team has sent players to area Division 1 college hockey programs such as UConn, Quinnipiac and UMass Amherst.  However, the competition to get on the Wolf Pack is high with players coming in from all parts of the country (their current roster features players from as far as Ohio, Indiana and Missouri).

Milford goalie and CHSCA Division II MVP from this past year, Marcus Demchak, is hoping to take the junior route by trying out for the Laconia Leafs. The Leafs are located in New Hampshire and Marcus has already noted an increase in level of competition.

“The tryouts are hard, and they’re a lot different than high school hockey,” Marcus said. “It was very challenging.”

For a more in-depth look at Marcus’ hopes of making it onto a junior team this Spring, take a look at the photo/audio slideshow below of Marcus’ story.

On the other side, players can go the prep hockey route where they can continue their education while repeating a grade. Due to eligibility rules, player’s can repeat one year at a prep school.  Connecticut is abundant in prep schools, with 14 located around the state with hockey programs, shown in the map below.

Goalie Anthony Avitable, the 2009 CHSCA Divison 1 MVP, played four years at Hamden high school before repeating a post-grad senior year at Hebron Academy in Maine.  Avitable also noted that despite his success at the high school level, the transition to prep school was difficult.

“As a goaltender, the jump to prep school hockey from public high school hockey was as drastic as I thought it would be,” Avitable said in an e-mail. “The game itself is faster, the shots I faced were faster.  Taking nothing away from public high school hockey, the teams in prep school hockey are just deeper, the kids are just more developed.”

Avitable’s high school head coach at Hamden, Bill Verneris, has had ample experience in sending players to both the prep and junior hockey levels. Here is an audio podcast of Verneris talking about his experiences on this topic throughout the years with players such as current Los Angeles Kings goaltender, Jonathan Quick.

So what could be the reason why certain kids accel at the next level, while others falter? Tom Neagle, Chair of the CASCIAC hockey committee, says a lot can do with a player’s personal assessment.

“If a high school player genuinely has the skills and, more importantly, the game savvy and motivation, it may be a good decision to play at a prep school or for a junior program,” Neagle said in an e-mail. “But, frankly, many players do not possess those talents and traits. While some do, I’m not sure that many of those that make the move to prep school and the juniors possess a realistic assessment of their abilities and/or potential.”

Neagle also went on to say that it is not the CIAC’s job to prepare high school players to play at the next level, but simply to promote competitive play as an added bonus to their academic endeavors.

“It is not the CIAC’s mission to prepare hockey players (or players in any sport) for ‘the next level’,” Neagle said via e-mail.  “Athletic competition is a complementary component to the player’s academic program, both are geared to teach student-athletes lessons that are useful and necessary for success in life.”

So while there may be the success stories of some Connecticut high school hockey players throughout the years playing at a high-level of competition (Chris Drury, Jonathan Quick), there will always be those that fall through the cracks. Time will only tell where the road will take the current players. Some will succeed, some are just not cut out for ‘the next level’.

In a poll conducted by The Home-Ice Advantage, 72 percent of participants felt as though a child’s success at a sport is directly correlated with his or her family’s income.  While 28 percent felt that there is no correlation between the two.  In the game of hockey, full protective equipment, skates, and sticks can cost you well into the hundreds, if not thousands.  Most of which will be outgrown in a few years, and in some cases such as a stick, can break in just a few games.  Not to mention the cost of ice time fees.   Unlike sports such as basketball and soccer, playing hockey will come with a hefty price tag.  In a February Boston Globe article written by Kathleen Burge, Burge discusses the issue of kids being discouraged from youth hockey programs partly because of pressure received from parents that urge results due to the expensive equipment and ice time fees.   Burge writes, “Some of the fault, hockey coaches say, lies with overeager parents pushing their children to focus on hockey, sometimes to the exclusion of other sports. Ice time and equipment are expensive, and parents sometimes want to see results for their money in the form of school scholarships, if not a pro career.”   This could mean that in some of the less-wealthier towns,  the majority of kids are not even pursuing hockey. 

So does that mean that the towns in Connecticut which are most successful at hockey are the most wealthy?  Yes and no.    According to the U.S. Census from 2000,  towns such as Darien ($173,777), Greenwich ($122,719), and New Canaan ($177,331) have some of the highest median family incomes in the state of Connecticut.  These Fairfield County towns’ respective high schools have also experienced some success of their own in the CIAC (reaching the CIAC state championship game a combined 11 times since 1990).  Not to mention the success of Fairfield County powerhouse Fairfield Prep (six state championships since 2000).  There is a trend between money and a town’s high school hockey team’s success.  However, there is a counterpoint.   Hamden High School for instance has won more state championships than any other school in the state of Connecticut.    In the year 2000,  Hamden township had a median household income of only $65,301.    Same goes for West Haven High School, who has captured seven state championships in their time.  West Haven township had a median household income of $51,613.   Towns like Hamden and West Haven have been successful because of a withstanding tradition and history of being hockey towns. 

So on one hand, more money means better equipment, access to camps and more means to pay for travel expenses.   All of which could be a reason behind the success of some teams across the state.  However, it can be said that hard work and tradition alone will go a long way also.  So what do the reader’s think?  Sound off below with your thoughts and comments.

Hamden High School Hockey's Journey to Capturing their Second Consecutive CIAC State Championship on Dipity.

This past March, Hamden High School was able to defeat Fairfield Prep 6-5 to capture their second consecutive CIAC Division 1 State Championship.  The above link is to a Dipity timeline covering Hamden’s journey on their way to Ingalls Rink.  The timeline features a midseason feature video of the team, along with highlight packages and postgame interviews from their CIAC Division 1 semifinal and championship game.  Video is courtesy of Bobby Michelin, HockeyBarn.com and YouTube’s kgbillhardt.  Enjoy!

RinkAtlas.com is a Web site that provides door-to-door directions for ice rinks and arenas around the nation.  Rink Atlas’ database ranges from the professional ranks of arenas in the NHL, to your local hometown rink.  The service uses Google API to not only display maps to the rink, but also satellite images.  By adding this widget from widgetbox.com, it provides a small and clean search bar that links directly to a Google maps satellite image of the searched rink. 

For those that have traveled to small hometown hockey rinks, they can be tricky to find.  Bennett Rink for example, home of the West Haven Blue Devils among other schools, could be confusing to find if using Google maps directly.  When searching  ‘Bennett Rink’, Google takes you in the opposite direction, as seen in the photo below.   

The red mark to the right is where Google maps locates Bennett Rink

However, by entering the same ’Bennett Rink’ in Rink Atlas’ search tool, it takes you directly to where the rink is located.  As seen below.

The correct location of Bennett Rink in West Haven. Courtesy of RinkAtlas.com

Rink Atlas is a service making sure all hockey players, parents and fans can make it to the rink in a timely fashion.  Users can search by rink name, city and state or five-digit U.S. ZIP code.

Over the years, a trend has developed in Connecticut among high school ice hockey state champions.  High schools located in the southern region of Connecticut have won the majority of ice hockey state championships dating back to the 1960s.  In the above map, markers are placed on locations of state champions in their respective divisions over the past 10 years.  In Division 1, where a team north of New Britain has only won a state championship once since 2000 (Simsbury in 2003), the disparity is considerable.  

Josh Schachter, founder of HockeyBarn.com, believes the main reason for the disparity is stronger youth programs in towns located in southern Connecticut.  

“I think it starts with the feeder programs,” Schachter said.  “You can speculate a few reasons for this.  But whatever the case may be, youth hockey in the southern part of the state seems to start out stronger than its northern counterpart.”

Southern Conn. teams such as Hamden, West Haven, Fairfield Prep and Notre Dame- Fairfield have dominated Connecticut high school ice hockey.  However, there are teams from the northern region of Connecticut that are slowly making a name for themselves.  The Glastonbury Tomahawks made it to the CIAC Division 1 state championship game last year before losing to Hamden.  The Tomahawks finished this season 15-6-1.   A record of this magnitude is impressive, yet some may discredit their success due to a weak strength of schedule.  

“Respect for northern teams is few and far between,” Glastonbury goalie and captain Chris Hemhauser said.   “Being from Glastonbury we have gotten some respect after our record these past few years, but no other team from the north is considered a true threat in the south.”

As Glastonbury continues to show improvement, other teams from the north are beginning to do the same.  Schachter believes that although the southern teams will continue to be successful, the northern teams will one day compete with them and capture state championships of their own. 

“As a youth hockey coach in northern Connecticut, I see the tremendous talent at the youth level on almost a daily basis during the winter.  It’s just a matter of harnessing that talent at the high school level,” Schachter said.  “ There’s absolutely no reason that the teams from the north cannot be the best in the state, it just may not happen over night.”

The No. 1 seeded Greenwich Cardinals defeated the No. 8 seeded Stamford Black Knights in their FCIAC Quarterfinal game, 3-2.   They would go on to face the No. 4 seeded Ridgefield Tigers, as the Tigers defeated No. 5 Trinity Catholic.  Greenwich needed overtime to fight off the upset-minded Black Knights.    Rit Spezzano scored two goals including the game winner in overtime for the Cardinals.  Joey Lodato also added a goal.  Greenwich’s goaltender Adam Gelbs made 25 saves in the victory and was a main reason for why Greenwich was able to hold off Stamford.  Despite the strong play of a few Greenwich players, the Cardinals’ mistakes kept Stamford in the game.  Greenwich committed 10 penalties througout, which held them a man down for most of the game.  Stamford’s Preston Rogers scored a powerplay goal to tie the game at two with 1:35 left in the game.   That goal took the game into overtime.   However, Stamford’s effort fell short halfway through the sudden-death overtime period.  For a full recap of the game, click here.

The Ridgefield Tigers defeated the Trinity Catholic Crusaders 2-1 in their FCIAC quarterfinal game.   Sean Wilkinson and Danny McMullan scored for the Tigers and goalie Nate Gliedman made 16 saves in the victory.  The matchup between these two teams was very back-and-forth.   However, McMullan was able to score just a minute into the third period.  From there on, Gliedman held off any attack from the Crusaders to seal the victory for the Tigers.  For a full recap of the game, click here.

Greenwich head coach Bob Russel stressed that his team must get their offense going before the semifinal game against Ridgefield on Wednesday, March 3rd.   The Tigers from Ridgefield upset the Cardinals 3-2 to move on to the FCIAC Finals.   As Ridgefield’s head coach Sean Gallagher said, the FCIAC was wide open for the taking, as his team was able to defeat the No. 1 seed and defending FCIAC champions in Greenwich.

This link above is to a video posted by Bird’s Eye Sports.  It is a game package highlights for a matchup earlier this season between Fairfield Prep and South Windsor High School.  Fairfield Prep won the game, 4-1.  With this video however, it isn’t so much the video highlights themselves that should be checked out, but more so the play of #8, Darric White.    White has tallied 15 goals and 5 assists so far this season and was named the HockeyBarn.com December Player of the Month.   

Fairfield Prep's Darric White. Photo courtesy of HockeyBarn.com

In the above video, users can see just a glimpse of White’s great skill set as he out dekes both defenders and goaltenders on his way to scoring two beautiful goals.  White is a main reason why Fairfield Prep has been ranked #1 on HockeyBarn.com’s weekly power rankings throughout most of the season,  and is widely considered the best player right now in the state of Connecticut. Unfortunately for both Prep and White, White went down with a shoulder injury earlier in the month and has been out ever since.  White hopes to return to action in time for the State championship playoffs in the beginning of March.  If Prep plans on capturing another state championship, they will likely need White’s scoring ways in their starting lineup.

Since the year 2000, Fairfield Prep has won the Connecticut Division 1  State Championship six times, (2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008).  Their last victory came in a hard fought battle against crosstown rival Notre Dame-Fairfield as the Jesuits won 5-3.  This video posted above caputres both the essence and intensity of what Connecticut high school hockey is all about.

A viral video shot and posted on YouTube by Maxpower6868 captures the final minutes of play in the championship game between Prep and Notre Dame.  In the video description, the user notes that he was sitting behind Prep’s Robert Summerlin’s dad at Ingalls Rink in New Haven.   

Summerlin netted the empty net goal to seal the win for his squad, and you can even hear Rob’s dad yell, “Shoot it Rob!” at the 12 second mark.  After the goal the Prep students and fans go crazy as their team has all but captured its sixth state championship in just nine years.   I think this is a great way of really showing what Connecticut High School hockey means to these fans.  Ingalls Rink goes absolutely nuts as if they had just witnessed their home team win the Stanley Cup.  But they did not.  It was just a group of young men fulfilling a dream in a game they may or may not ever play again after that victory.