NHS Hockey Team Skates Past New Milford—

Six For Six — Hawks Erupt For Six Goals In Third Period, Win Sixth Straight Game

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — Clinging to a 2-1 lead as they headed into the third period, the Nighthawks seized control of their South-West Conference clash with New Milford. Newtown High School’s hockey team reeled off six unanswered goals in an 8-1 win, their sixth straight victory, at Danbury Ice Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Evan Isaacs had two goals and three assists to lead the offensive charge, Tyler Hanley netted his first goal, Alex Kelly assisted two tallies and, along with Brett Klein, played a strong defensive game as the Nighthawks improved to 6-2 and knocked off New Milford for the second time this winter.

The Nighthawks narrowly missed chances to add to their goal total late in the second period, but managed to put the game away with a dominant third period.

“I just think the intensity got picked up. Everyone knew it was a one-goal game and knew we had to pick it up,” Klein said.

“We had really good passing in the game,” added. “We pressured them the whole game and that worked out for us.”

Kelly set up each of the first two goals, one by Isaacs and the second by Christian Blais on a pretty play in which Blais rushed the goal mouth and one-timed a long feed into the back of the cage for a 2-0 lead.

Hunter Dolyak scored 3:18 into the third for a 3-1 lead, and Parker Rodbell buried a rebound off a shot by Isaacs after Isaacs picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, and made his way past New Milford’s defenders on a short-handed bid. Jake Solomons, Matt Vitti, Isaacs again, and Hanley capped the scoring. Hanley’s tally came on a slapshot from the point that went through traffic and into the net. “It felt excellent,” Hanley, a sophomore, said of his first high school goal. Christian Blais, Ted Beniot, Chris Erikson, and Harmon Coffey all added assists.

The Nighthawks made some adjustments between periods before they came back out onto the ice for the third, and that keyed the string of put-away and gravy goals.

“The kids were getting frustrated. We had scoring opportunities but we couldn’t finish, so the message was ‘we have 15 minutes left — we need to finish,’” said Newtown Coach Paul Esposito, adding that the adjustments included backing off a bit, soft dump-ins, and looking to the doorstep for in-close scoring chances. “After we got that first goal in the third period I think everybody relaxed a little bit.”

Newtown goaltender Mike Allwein stopped 14 shots as the Nighthawks held an opponent to just one goal for the fifth straight game.

Esposito gave some of the credit to Assistant Coach Mike Jones, who works with the defensemen to not allow second-shot scoring chances. “That’s the key to winning big games — so we’re happy with the consistency there,” Esposito said.

The Nighthawks hope the consistency continues in the form of wins continuing to pile up.

“We have a lot more momentum than we had last year,” said Hanley, adding that everyone is a year older with more experience.

Esposito said the chemistry is growing every day and that the team will remain hungry for success as the Hawks try to get back to, and make a run in the state playoffs, and avenge last year’s Division III state tournament quarterfinal round loss to the Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury team. Newtown, following more than a week off from game play, and a January 26 game against Joel Barlow of Redding, will host the Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury team in Danbury on Saturday, January 29, at 2:10 pm.