New Canaan Hockey Rallies to Beat Darien, 3-1

The New Canaan boys hockey team's unbeaten string was in jeopardy Wednesday night with the Rams trailing by a goal after two periods against much-improved Darien.

But Charley Corcoran, Reed Harper and Dylan Hart scored in the third period as the Rams rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Blue Wave at the Darien Ice Rink. 

New Canaan remained the state's only unbeaten team, improving to 8-0 in the FCIAC and 15-0 overall.  Darien (4-3, 7-7-1) entered Wednesday's game having lost only once in its previous five contests, a 3-2 overtime defeat to Ridgefield.

The Blue Wave opened the scoring three minutes into the first period when Hank Glick fired from the blue line on a power play. Teammate Nick Bruno redirected the puck past New Canaan goaltender Tim Nowacki for a 1-0 lead.

"The puck was deflected to the ice and it bounced up and into the net," Nowacki said.

The Wave had only three more shots in the period while the Rams were starting to crank it up. They finished with 15 in the period, but were denied by Darien goaltender Max Rothston.

The Rams couldn't capitalize despite having a five-on-three along with two other power plays in the period.

The Rams continued to force the action in the second period, with Rothston turning away 10 more shots.  Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice Nowacki was having a quiet day at the office.

Things changed drastically in the third, as Corcoran tied it less than two minutes into the period.  He created a turnover, corralled the puck and drove to the net to beat Rothston.

Just past the midway point of the period, Harper sped toward Rothston, threw in a little hesitation move and scored top shelf for a 2-1 Rams' lead.

"Harper requires constant watching," Wave coach Larry Vieira said. "He's that good."

At this point it was Nowacki's turn to come up big. The Wave had some good opportunities to tie the game but Nowacki closed the door.

Hart completed New Canaan's scoring with an unassisted goal after stealing the puck off a defender's stick and breaking in alone.

"Good teams create mistakes and that's what New Canaan did," Vieira said. "We didn't give it to them, they took it from us and that's why they're having an undefeated season.  

Nowacki recorded 11 saves while Rothston stopped 28.

The win was a bittersweet one for New Canaan, which  lost star winger Henry Corcoran earlier in the week for the remainder of the season because of a blood clot in his arm.

Harper said it hit the team really hard and it took his teammates a while to get back in a hockey frame of mind.

New Canaan has five regular-season games remaining with an away contest at Hamden on Friday next on the schedule.

Darien also has five regular-season games remaining with its next outing at Westhill (Terry Conners)  on Saturday.