CT Girls Championship Hockey Game Truncated

by Jack Edwards
9March2015
The 2015 Connecticut High School girls hockey state
championship game was stopped while tied after two overtimes
Saturday in direct contradiction to tournament rules. Immediately
after the girls game was truncated, the high school athletic
conference hosting the girls championship game held its own
boys county-wide championship game before a packed house.
Simsbury High School and a cooperative team from East Catholic
(Manchester), Glastonbury, and South Windsor were tied, 2-2.
They were declared co-champions according to a ruling delivered
by game site director Rich Bulan. Both teams were surprised to
learn that instead of continuing through sudden death periods
until someone scored to win the championship as is a long-held
tradition throughout the hockey world the game itself would
have a sudden end. Four years before, there had been a fiveovertime game in the girls tournament -- ending with a goal.
Simsbury Coach Paul Melanson said his assistant coach told him
during the second overtime. Melanson told us, She says, The
A.D. [athletic director Dane Street] just said if theres no winner,
theyre going to declare co-champions, and I said, What?!! but
I had to keep coaching, there was a game going on.
The Co-op teams coach, Frank Usseglio, also was baffled. I
didnt tell the girls, Usseglio said, because they had enough to
think about with the game going on. But thats not the way it was
supposed to be.
Girls Hockey is not under the aegis of the Connecticut
Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) -- the statewide body
that governs most varsity high school sports -- because of
comparatively low participation. There are two conferences that
have filled the administrative void, the Southern Connecticut

Conference (SCC) and the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic

Conference (FCIAC, commonly referred to as EFF-see-ack.
Coaches and athletic administrators from hockey schools in the
SCC and FCIAC have cooperated for years to help girls hockey
grow. They communicate regarding schedules, rules, tournament
formats, and procedures. In fact, coaches across the state
received tournament guidelines from Usseglio on February 12, an
email we have obtained. Note item #3:

There is no mention anywhere in the email of a limit on the

number of overtimes, a tiebreaker shootout, or any ending other
than until the games are decided, which as any hockey fan
knows sometimes means marathon games that create
monumental legends of the sport. Klima, Matteau, Horton,
Crosby, Poulin, pick your hero.
The two teams playing in the girls championship game were both
from the SCC playing at the FCIAC rink. When Street suggested
that it didnt make sense to have two teams that are located close
to one another travel about two hours to play and that the title
game be relocated -- he says his idea was summarily rejected.
As the game between these two SCC girls teams began to push
into the FCIAC boys game window, the tournament guidelines fell
by the wayside.
Bulan, the site director at the Conners rink, said, We (the host
committee) decided that we would go with CIAC (the statewide
governing body that does not oversee girls hockey) guidelines for

multiple overtimes in girls sports. They do this (declare cochampions) in soccer, I know, and lacrosse.
CIAC does not, however, limit overtimes in boys hockey. And
Bulan, despite being the coach of the New Canaan girls team for
the last 15 years, says he did not have any guidelines that
indicated the girls championship should continue until someone
scored a goal. Im sitting here looking at my computer, he told
us Sunday night, and Ive got everything open. I dont see
anything like that.
A capacity crowd gathered during the girls championship game
not so much because of what was at stake for the girls, but in
anticipation of the scheduled county-wide tilt between the Darien
and Greenwich boys. A woman in the stands, who asked not to be
identified, said, Our game [Darien vs Greenwich] started very
late, but no one near me was complaining or pressuring. We were
all watching, including the FCIAC players.
Another observer said, The boys were half-dressed in their gear
and they were pounding on the glass. They are so used to waiting
because anyone who plays at this level has experienced
tournaments where there are all kinds of delays. And this was for
a championship. They got it. They understood.
Was the girls game truncated in order to accommodate a boys
game? Anyone saying this decision was gender-based is wrong.
That could not be further from the truth, said Bulan. Im one of
those guys who has put in the blood, sweat, and tears I coached
boys for twenty years before I started coaching girls and Ill never
go back.
The procedure for calling off the game after two overtimes
seemed to be made on the fly. Simsbury AD Street said, I asked
what was going to happen if it was tied after the [first] overtime
and [the FCIAC representative] said Lets hope someone scores.
This was a communication problem. We should have told them
before the second overtime, said Bulan, But this was great for

girls hockey. The crowd, the quality of play, the girls game has
come such a long way in the last few years.
For some players, though, this was the last year. Melanson and
Usseglio estimate that, other than a few seniors who might play
Division III or club hockey in college, this was it.
Melanson said, That was the subject of my pre-game speech. I
said, This is it for them you owe it to these seniors who have
poured their heart and soul into this team. Simsbury was trying
to win its second state title in a row.
The end-of-game contrast of the flying gloves and sticks and
delirious pig-pile in one goalmouth with the inconsolable wait for
the handshake line half a rink -- yet an emotion world away
never happened. The two teams took turns posing with the one
plaque. There were co-champions, but no winners.
Melanson said, The girls were just totally disappointed some
were in tears. Nobody was happy with it. Nobody.