Haire goal in double OT gives Darien second straight FCIAC crown
DARIEN — Look, after over 72 minutes of hockey, sometimes a girl’s just got to get the heck out and get a rest.
So Izzy Haire scored a beauty 12:37 into double overtime, sent everyone home and Darien is the FCIAC champion in girls hockey for the second year in a row.
Cutting right through the slot and firing back against the grain high-blocker, the sophomore forward ended a 3-2 win over New Canaan in the league championship game Saturday at Darien Ice House.
“Honestly, I just wanted to shoot it and get off the ice so I could let somebody else get on, because I was getting pretty tired,” Haire said. “I did a quick other move by the blue line and I just shot it.”
The conference championship was the Blue Wave’s eighth, plus a regular-season title in the pandemic 2020-21 season.
Top-seeded New Canaan (19-3) has only three one-goal losses to Darien against its ledger this season. Third-seeded Darien (17-2-1) and senior goalie J.J. Maher shut out New Canaan twice, 1-0, first on 19 saves, then on 20.
Haire scored the game-winner in the second meeting. She assisted Adriana Gromelski’s game-winner in the first meeting.
Haire scored the first goal in this one off a scramble, poking in a rebound. And she finished it off after the teams played nearly 60 scoreless minutes from the end of the first period to 2:23 left in a second overtime played four-on-four.
“(Haire) is smart,” Darien coach Jamie Tropsa said. “A lot of our kids wouldn’t have even taken that shot, they’d have waited, and waited a little longer, and she just saw that little open. She’s a smart athlete, and a skilled one in other ways, too.”
Maher made 37 saves Saturday. New Canaan freshman Macyn Callahan made 46.
“(Callahan) was probably the star of the game if you ask me, but she just couldn’t see it,” said Tropsa, who said he coached Callahan when she was 10. “It was just an angle there, it went right between a leg, under — there was no way for her to see it.”
New Canaan answered Haire’s first goal with Sam Mettler’s power-play goal just over four minutes later. After not solving Maher for over 90 min
utes, that made a difference.
And after the Blue Wave regained the lead on Sarah Kellogg’s goal with 2:04 left in the first, Isabella Hanna had an answer with 47.9 seconds left in the period.
“That got us all fired up, obviously,” New Canaan coach Rich Bulan said. “You know how that goes mentally. All of a sudden, you put one in and you’re like wait a minute, we can do this.”
If they do meet again in the state tournament, Bulan said, it’d be nice to score first.
New Canaan had a few chances in overtime and a
few long shifts in the Darien end, nearly found a few rebounds bouncing around the crease, but couldn’t solve Maher again.
“Those are rough,” Bulan said. “You wish nobody would lose games like that, but, great shot. Izzy, just, that’s a great shot. What’re you going to do?”
It’s not always the pretty goal that wins a playoff overtime game, but Haire got one Saturday.
Just in time, maybe. “I feel like my legs might collapse,” Haire said. “I’m just glad it’s over, and I’m really happy we won.”
Player of the Game
Darien sophomore Izzy Haire scored the first goal and finished off the day
with a goal in double overtime.
Quotable
“They’ve got a little more experience up front. We’ve got a little more experience in the back. Freshman goaltender for us, they’ve got a senior: It’s just a good match playing them.” —New Canaan coach Rich Bulan