Final No. 1 boys hockey teams in the GameTimeCT Top 10 polls era

CIAC boys hockey, fortunately for poll voters, plays in three divisions, so the Division I champion is usually (not always, but usually) a unanimous No. 1. Here are the last 10 final No. 1 teams in the GameTimeCT boys hockey poll. (Note: No final poll was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the CIAC tournament.)

2023-24: Notre Dame-West Haven. The Green Knights were the first CIAC team in six years to go unbeaten through its in-state schedule, surviving a Simsbury scare in the semifinals and defeating New Canaan 4-1 in the Division I final. They played 11 games against out-of-state competition.

2022-23: Fairfield Prep. Alumnus Vin O’Hara took over for Matt Sather as head coach after the 2021-22 season and won a championship in his first season. Goalie James Heber and the Jesuits allowed no goals over the final 100 minutes of their season and won the Division I championship game 3-0 over Notre Dame-West Haven, which had been No. 1 much of the year.

2021-22: Notre Dame-West Haven. The Green Knights lost to New Canaan in their first in-state game of the year and never lost again to a Connecticut team. In the first CIAC final at Quinnipiac, Notre Dame came from behind to beat Darien 4-2 for its first Division I hockey championship in 10 years.

2021: Fairfield Prep. There was no CIAC championship during this weird winter as the state worked its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fairfield Prep and Notre Dame-West Haven were set to meet in the final game of the year, the SCC/SWC Division I championship, but — weird winter — the league cancelled the game after the Jesuits’ semifinal opponent, Notre Dame-Fairfield, had cases of the virus. Fairfield Prep was 1-0-1 against the Green Knights in the regular season and took 12 of 13 first-place votes.

2019-20: No final poll due to COVID-19 pandemic. Fairfield Prep was No. 1 in a three-way split vote in the last poll before the tournament’s scheduled start, jumping over Darien after the Jesuits won the SCC/SWC Division I championship in a shootout and Darien lost the FCIAC final to New Canaan.

2018-19: Fairfield Prep. This was supposed to be Ridgefield’s year. The Tigers went 20-0 in the regular season with two wins over Fairfield Prep. They won the FCIAC championship and were the first team in eight years to go into the CIAC tournament undefeated. And then they ran into a hot Xavier team and lost in overtime in the quarterfinals. Enter the Jesuits, who had one of those slow-build years, beat Xavier in the semifinals and beat Notre Dame-West Haven 5-2 for the championship, taking 12 of 13 first-place votes in the final poll (Ridgefield got one). We knew neither fact at the time, but this was the last CIAC final at Ingalls Rink after two decades at the Whale, and it was coach Matt Sather’s 11th and final CIAC championship.

2017-18: Fairfield Prep. This was one of those utter-dominance Jesuits seasons. They were 17-0 in-state and beat Greenwich 4-2 in the Division I final.

2016-17: Ridgefield. With a nice mix of young and veteran talent, the Tigers won the FCIAC championship. They cleared a key mental hurdle in the CIAC quarters with an overtime win over Fairfield Prep, which had defeated them 4-1 late in the regular season. And they beat Northwest Catholic 6-3 in the final for their first Division I championship.

2015-16: Darien. The Blue Wave played in their third consecutive final and became the first FCIAC team to win back-to-back championships, beating Fairfield Prep 4-2 in the final. With three consecutive final appearances and a semifinal the year before, Darien was 13-2 over four CIAC playoff years.

2014-15: Darien. The Blue Wave had been knocking on the door, and this year, they barged in. They beat Greenwich, with whom they’d tied in the regular season, to win the FCIAC championship for the first time in seven years. Then, on Jack Pardue’s second-period goal and Will Massie’s shutout, they beat the Cardinals again 1-0 in an instant-classic Division I final. It was Darien’s first CIAC championship since 1969.

2013-14: Fairfield Prep. Notre Dame-Fairfield went into the playoffs ranked No. 1, and Darien had defeated Fairfield Prep twice by a goal in the regular season. But in the end, it was the Jesuits’ Division I championship: Vinny D’Amore scored 6:09 into overtime to beat the Blue Wave 2-1. Darien, playing in its first final since 1987, received one of the 17 first-place votes.