This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Rams Turn Back Blue Wave in FCIAC Championship

Rams'freshman Olivia Hompe named MVP

Last season the Rams won the two regular season games they played against the Darien Blue Wave and then lost to them in the county and state championship games. The Rams dispelled of any thought of a repeat Saturday afternoon as they posted a goal in each period to defeat the Wave 3-0 for the 2010 FCIAC title.

Seniors Spitzfaden, Barad and Kelsey Durkin all said they had thought about last season's loss to Darien in the FCIAC Tournament and were locked in on not letting it happen again. But it was freshman Olivia Hompe who really brought it home.

Every time she touched the puck in the Darien zone good things happened for the Rams. Hompe scored the first two goals and assisted on the third and was named Tournament MVP.

There could have been a "No Vacancies" sign posted in the penalty box: 17 penalties were called—nine against New Canaan, eight on Darien, but surprisingly, there was only one goal scored on a power play.

In an evenly played first period, Hompe opened the scoring just over two minutes in when she made a nifty deke on a defenseman and fired from the left circle. The puck went top shelf, glove side past Katharine Macomber for a 1-0 lead. Shelby Barada assisted on the play. Each team had seven shots on goal by the intermission.

The second period was almost a carbon copy of the first. Less than three minutes in the Rams scored again. In the game's only power play goal, Hompe was stationed at the point when freshman Bea Eppler corralled a loose puck and put it right on Hompe's stick. Hompe buried it—the first shot in the period—and the Rams went up 2-0.

"We did what we do best," Coach Rich Bulan said afterwards. "Dump it in, chase it down and cause trouble. Our defense was terrific, Charlotte [Spitzfaden] as always great and our offense did what they were supposed to do."

The penalties were mounting for both teams as the period ended.

In the third period the sin bin was filling up fast as the teams went three-on-three with neither team able to score. But midway through the period, the Rams struck again. Hompe spotted Eppler near the Wave blue line and fed a perfect pass. Eppler, beat the defender with a nice move, held the puck for an extra second and fired it in for the third and final goal.

Wave Coach Al Gurney said after the game, "You can't take so many penalties, although only one goal was scored on a power play. But we didn't play very well either."

"We didn't play as well as we thought we should have. But give them credit," said Darien's Aimee Rich, saying the game had a very different dynamic than the two regular season match-ups in which New Canaan won each by one goal.

The Rams took the FCIAC Championship as the No. 1 seed and they'll go into the state championship as the No. 1 seed. They'll be back on the ice on Monday night at Terry Connors rink to play a first round game against Guilford.

Darien moves along as well—date, site and opponent TBD.

——

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

KEY STATS

Scoring:

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

1st Period

  • New Canaan—Hompe from Barada at 2:04

2nd Period

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • New Canaan—Hompe from Eppler and Persky at 2:47

3rd Period

  • New Canaan—Eppler from Hompe at 8:15

Goalie Saves:

  • New Canaan—Spitzfaden  18/18
  • Darien—Macomber  16/19
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?