In a game that went down to the wire, the Joel Barlow High hockey team lost a 6-5 decision in overtime to Daniel Hand of Madison on Saturday, Dec. 16, in the season opener at the Danbury Ice Arena.

Hand peppered the Barlow goal with shots early but Falcon goalie Zach Gormley made 11 saves to keep things scoreless after one frame. Paul Gagliardi put the Tigers up just 14 seconds into the next period with assists going to Mike McKeon and Griffin Fitzmaurice. Gagliardi also scored unassisted less than a minute later to make it 2-0.

Cutting the lead to one, Andrew Powell got Barlow on the board with 10:10 to go with assists going to Dan Rooney and Matteo Naclerio. It was later tied with Luke Dube scoring at 6:55 with Ted Blanchard assisting.

Despite a number of shots by Gagliardi later in the period, the score remained at 2-2.

The Tigers broke the tie in the third on a goal by Fitzmaurice and also scored when Ian Rice found the net. It was then a three-goal game when Mike Halloran scored off a pass from Gagliardi with 7:52 left.

With less than five minutes to go Barlow began to rally with a goal by Rooney as Dube assisted. Powell cut it to 5-4 little more than a minute later as Rooney and Naclerio assisted. Completing his hat trick, Powell tied it at 5-5 with 2:14 to go with Jake Fones assisting as thing eventually went into overtime.

Hand, however, clinched the win with a goal in the extra frame.