HAMDEN – The Conard ice hockey team has made a habit of advancing to the Division III semifinals.
The last four years, including Monday night against New Milford, the Red Wolves have been in the semifinal game. Three times, including Monday night, they advanced to the championship game.
Last year, they won their first title since 1996.
The Red Wolves lost 11 players from that team – 10 who graduated, and one who went to prep school. But the players who came back have the experience of playing at Quinnipiac and they knew what to expect.
Third-seeded Conard won, 3-1, over No. 10 New Milford and will play in the Division III championship game either Saturday or Sunday at Quinnipiac at a time to be determined against the winner of the Wilton-Joel Barlow/Weston/Abbott Tech semifinal game Monday night.
“Our coach came in before the game today and said we’ve been here the last four years, so it’s no new environment for us,” junior right wing Gavin Mangini said. “That’s always our goal – to get here.”
Conard advanced to the finals and lost in 2022 and lost in the semifinals in 2023 before winning it all last year.
Conard ties it up on a power play goal by Jack Eisenberg 1-1 5:27 left first period pic.twitter.com/JrFWMYyyU8
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) March 17, 2025
After John King scored for New Milford in the first period, Conard junior Jack Eisenberg got a goal on a power play to tie the score at 1 in the first period and sophomore Bradan Gainey scored on a breakaway with 9:18 left in the second period to give Conard the lead. Junior Torin McGoldrick scored an empty net goal in the last few seconds of the game for Conard (16-7-2), which outshot New Milford 36-20.
“We carried a lot last year, so we brought a lot of experience back which I think has gotten us to where we’re at,” Conard coach Jason Olson said. “We had some ups and downs this season but when it came down to it, our experienced guys who had been here before kind of stepped up.”
Senior goalie Brendan Murphy was not necessarily one of those guys. Murphy was a backup goalie who saw time but not in big games. This year, he has been the starter.
Monday night, he held on for the final two minutes of the game during a New Milford power play.
Murphy had 19 saves.
“It’s been good since the beginning of the year,” Murphy said. “I knew I was going to have a solid team in front of me, even though a lot of guys left. I have a lot of confidence in our defense. Dylan (Smith) and Luke (Shaffer), they really hold it down.”
He only had four shots on goal to deal with in the second period. It got more interesting toward the end of the game.
“The last two minutes were not boring,” Murphy said. “But we got it done.”
Last year’s team beat Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury-Immaculate co-op, 4-1, for the program’s third title. Conard finished 22-2-1. This season was a little different. But the Red Wolves still wound up in the same place.
“We went in knowing we didn’t have as much talent as last year but with this team, we knew we had an insane amount of grit,” Mangini said. “It took a lot more to get here. I think our team adjusted to that well and that’s why we’re here now.”