Notre Dame-West Haven Tops New Canaan In State Ice Hockey Championship

HAMDEN, CT — The campus of Notre Dame High School in West Haven should be absolutely rocking on Wednesday morning. Still basking in the Division I championship won by its boys basketball team Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena, the Green Knights had a rare chance for dual state titles, as the second-seeded ice hockey team took on No. 1 New Canaan in the Division I title game Tuesday night at Quinnipiac University.

Notre Dame had defeated the Rams 5-1 two days before Christmas, and the final contest of the season seemed like deja vu. The Green Knights broke open a 1-0 game with a pair of second-period goals, aided by a crucial kill of a 5-minute New Canaan power play, en route to a 4-1 victory and the school's second state title in the last three years, and ninth overall.

Senior goaltender Layne Jackson was selected the game's Most Outstanding Player, stopping 24 of 25 Ram shots. Several of those saves came in the final three minutes of the contest, after New Canaan had pulled netminder Mason Pickering in favor of a sixth attacker.

Neither team dented the scoring column until the Knights' Dominic Dowd knocked home a loose rebound of a Logan Hurd shot from just left of the goal crease. The teams were skating 4-on-4 at the time due to assessment of a minor penalty to each side.

Just 1:29 into the middle period, a passing play between Nathan Marczak and Max Schroeder resulted in a Marczak shot beating Pickering on the short side. The momentum gained by the 2-goal advantage seemed to dissipate near the midpoint of the period, however, as a major penalty against Marczak for head contact, coupled with a 10-minute misconduct, gave the Rams a 5-minute unlimited power play.

Despite several scoring opportunities, New Canaan failed to convert during the long man advantage. A controversial goal by Notre Dame in the final minute of play before the second intermission then seemed to completely stifle the Rams.

Pickering stopped a shot by James Mascari, with the rebound popping in front of the New Canaan net. A Ram defender inadvertently knocked the puck back toward the cage, where it just squibbed over the goal line. After a conference between the officials and the goal judge, the Knights emerged with a 3-0 lead.

Jackson continued to shine in net for the Knights, making two consecutive great stops on a New Canaan power play, including one while lying prone on his back. The Rams finally solved him moments later, with Brayden Robie converting the rebound of a Max Lowe shot to trim the deficit to two.

A near-ice length backhander by Mascari in the waning seconds iced the championship for coach Larry Vieira's Notre Dame squad. The team finished 17-4-2 in regular season and state tournament competition, with all four losses being to out-of-state hockey powerhouses Pope Francis, Bishop Feehan, Bishop Hendricken and Xaverian Brothers.

New Canaan, which had won its previous two tournament games by a combined 13-1 score, had been seeking its first state championship since 1972.