East Hartford - In addition to his teaching and coaching duties, Chris Discordia has spent the last few weeks making phone calls, selling tickets and working out the logistics of his team's playing in Whalers Hockey Fest 2011, a 10-day celebration of the sport featuring high school games, college games, pro games and more at Rentschler Field.

After his team put together its best performance of the season in a 4-3 win over Guilford on Wednesday night, Discordia was ready to do it all over again.

"It was definitely worth every second," the St. Bernard-Norwich Free Academy-Bacon Academy co-op coach said. "It was awesome. I was waiting to see some magic and tonight, I saw some magic."

The magic started with a light snow that began to fall just as the two teams took the ice.

"Just walking out through the tunnel for the first time, with the ice and the lights on and the music going," Discordia said. "I had chills going out and I wasn't even playing."

Just two weeks after a 5-0 loss to Guilford - last season's Division III state champion and the top-ranked team in Division II this year - the Saints got on the board first and came back from a one-goal deficit in the second period to post the biggest win for the first-year co-op program.

"Our kids were moving in the right direction," Discordia said. "We circled this one on the calendar. This was going to be the game to tell us if we were going to step up or kind of just be mediocre. I told the guys before the game, 'You might get one shift or you might get 15 or 20. Whatever it is, play like that was your last shift.' And they did."

After a scoreless first period, the Saints (9-6) scored first early in the second when James Stowe set up Sean Hurley on a two-on-one break.

"It was a relief getting that first goal and I told them I wanted the first goal," Discordia said. "I knew they needed to see they could score goals against this team. That was huge."

The euphoria didn't last long.

Nine seconds later, Guilford tied the game and the Indians (13-2-1) took the lead shortly after.

Denzel Dickerson tied the game and, two minutes later, Eric Butrymowicz gave the Saints a 3-2 lead.

"That first goal was going to predict the whole game," said Stowe, who had three assists. "We picked our heads right back up and were able to keep our heads up."

With 9:08 left in the third, Stowe found Blake Biancamano in front of the net with a nifty backhanded flip to give the Saints a 4-2 lead.

"Stowe likes to pass first but he didn't really have a scoring option (earlier in the season)," Discordia said. "Now he's got Blake, who's been putting a lot in lately, and Sean Hurley, too. Our goals were some nice goals. They weren't slug-it-out goals. We're kind of where we want to be right now."

St. Bernard goalie Danny Berry made 25 saves.

"It boosted us and we grew as a team," Berry said. "I think we saw a lot of things click in this game."

The Saints now have momentum working in their favor with five regular-season games remaining, including Friday's game against Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury, likely the No. 1 seed in the Division III tournament. St. Bernard now thinks it has a legitimate shot to win that game, buoyed by a victory that will leave a lasting impression.

"This was the highlight of my life," Stowe said. "It was a blast."

o.poole@theday.com