Rams Skaters Fly Into FCIAC Finals

The New Canaan girls hockey team moved into Saturday's FCIAC championship game on the strength of a 3-goal opening period against Ridgefield on Wednesday night at the Darien Ice Rink. The Rams won 5-1 to set up a title game against rival Darien.

"If you dig a hole against a very good team like New Canaan, it's hard to climb out," said Ridgefield Coach Paul Fabbri. "They're too skilled and too deep to do that."

New Canaan had played Ridgefield twice in the regular season, winning the season opener in December 7-0 and then 5-2 just one week ago. If there were any problems in terms of "getting up" for a third meeting they were quickly dispelled.

The Rams big guns were on target early. Olivia Hompe opened the scoring on an assist from Jana Persky midway through the first period. The same pair hooked up again less than two minutes later. Persky to Hompe gave the Rams a 2-0 lead.

Near the end of the period, New Canaan made it 3-0 when Abby Buckenheimer scored with a helper from Corbett Ripley. It was 3-0 after one with New Canaan holding an 11-2 edge in shots-on-goal.

Ridgefield's Cara Lockwood got her team's goal midway in the third period when she picked off a pass at the Rams' blue line, sped down the right wing and scored from the circle to make it a 3-1 game. But Persky put the Tigers back on their heels again when she scored on a power play from nearly a dead angle. She was assisted by Shelby Barada and the Rams led 4-1.

"We got going in the final period but it was too late," said Fabbri. "I don't know why we didn't have that fire over the first two periods, but we didn't. We have a tough time scoring against them.We've played them three times and have scored three goals."

With under one-minute remaining in the third  period Hompe got her hat trick; she beat a defender for the puck and scored on a well placed backhand—assist from Bea Eppler, a 5-1 lead for a 5-1 final.

Hompe said afterwards, "Despite the scores in the two previous games, we let them hang around too long before we broke it open—tonight we jumped on them pretty quickly."

The Rams have now scored 95 goals to 16 against. 

Rams coach Rich Bulan said he was pleased with the overall performance.

"Getting out quickly was key," he said. "Everybody played well and we're ready for Darien on Saturday."

"We've beaten them twice this season and it'll be harder to win a third in a row," Hompe said, "but we'll be ready."

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Watch the final minute of the game: http://patch.com/Ojkc 

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KEY STATS:

Shots-on-goal:

•   New Canaan — 26

•   Ridgefield — 10

Goals:

 1st Period

• New Canaan — Olivia Hompe from Jana Persky at 7:33; Olivia Hompe from Jana Persky at 9:15; Abbey Buckenheimer from Corbett Ripley at 13:06

2nd Period

• Ridgefield — Cara Lockwood unassisted at 7:29
• New Canaan — Jana Persky (p.p.) from Shelby Barada at 4:05; Olivia Hompe from Bea Eppler at 14:29

3rd Period

• no scoring