The last time the New Canaan and Darien boys hockey teams met in the FCIAC Championship game it was 2008. Back then, Mac Wright was a 6th grade youth hockey player, awestruck by the spectacle of a filled-to-the-rafters hockey rink watching two bitter rivals going at each other with everything they had, as though their lives depended on it. And although he saw the Rams lose to Darien 2-1, it made an immediate, lasting impression on the young goalie.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘I want to play in that game,’ ” Wright recalled. “This is something I need to do in my life.’”
Six years later, Wright not only played in “that game”—he’s its MVP.
Led by Wright’s 24 saves and a shocking 2nd period offensive outburst from which the Blue Wave never recovered, New Canaan defeated Darien 5-2 in front of a huge, raucous crowd that made Terry Conners Rink feel more like an insane asylum than a high school hockey arena.
The win gave New Canaan its 18th FCIAC title, and the 10th for longtime coach Bo Hickey.
“Coach said before the Ridgefield game that if we win that game we play against Darien in a madhouse and you’ll never forget it,” Wright told NewCanaanite.com. “I couldn’t even hear myself most of the time.”
New Canaan didn’t have much to cheer about in the opening period, as the offense struggled. Darien senior Tommy Watters banked home a shot off Wright from behind the net just over 3 minutes into the game, giving the Blue Wave a 1-0 lead that would hold through the rest of the period.
It could have been much worse, if not for the otherwise-brilliant net-minding of Wright, who stopped 10 of 11 shots on goal.
“I think we had some butterflies in the beginning,” said Rams senior captain Harry Stanton who finished the game with a goal and an assist. “We kept it to within one. We knew that if we could come into the locker room after the 1st within one, the game was still up for grabs.”
New Canaan regrouped after the intermission, and began winning face-offs and controlling the neutral zone with more consistency. A Darien penalty gave the Rams a man-advantage with 4:58 left in the 2nd. Five seconds into the power play, New Canaan senior captain Peter Reinhardt scored to tie the game at 1-1.
Twenty seconds later the Rams would strike again.
Rams junior winger Patrick Hompe took the puck wide into the Darien zone and fed senior captain Jack O’Rourke in front of the net. O’Rourke’s one-timer beat Darien goalie Michael Colon, and suddenly New Canaan had a 2-1 lead with 4:34 to go in the 2nd.
New Canaan never looked back.
Thirteen seconds into the 3rd period, Rams freshman Drew Morris took a feed from O’Rourke and hit a rising slap shot past Colon for a goal and a 3-1 New Canaan lead.
Darien would answer 3 minutes later. Owen Koorbusch took a pass from Watters and beat Wright to pull to within one with just under 8 minutes left to play.
“I put that one on myself,” said Wright. “I think I had a little slow moment there. I should have gotten over and got it.”
That was about all Wright did not get in this game as he delivered an MVP performance, making big save after big save. The pressure and intensity inside Terry Conners mounted as Darien players and fans could sense the urgency of the moment with time ticking away.
Then came the back-breaker.
After a faceoff in Darien’s zone, O’Rourke chased down a loose puck in the corner when he spotted Stanton cutting to the middle of the ice. O’Rourke slid a perfect pass to Stanton, whose one-timer found the back of the net. New Canaan had a 4-2 lead with 4:18 left in the game.
“Harry and I have been playing together for years now on the same line,” O’Rourke said. “Our chemistry has really evolved over the years where I didn’t even have to look up to make that pass.”
Two minutes later O’Rourke capped the scoring with an empty-net goal to give the Rams a 5-2 lead that would hold up as the final score.
“What else could you ask for really,” Stanton said. “Darien-New Canaan in the FCIAC finals. Everyone knew how big it was.”