Bad Breaks Cost Newtown High Hockey Team

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — Credit the Newtown High School hockey team for this: The Nighthawks kept their composure and did not take a single penalty in the February 4 game against Watertown-Pomperaug. “They played a very disciplined game,” Newtown Coach Paul Esposito said. This, even after falling behind 2-0 on a pair of controversial goals en route to a 4-3 loss and battling a physical team with a definitive size advantage.

Watertown-Pomperaug took eight penalties and NHS capitalized on two power plays, but failed to convert on a late game 5-on-3 advantage and fell short to drop to 4-8 this season. The Nighthawks fell 7-2 to New Milford on Saturday to see their record drop to 4-9 overall. Not that losing by five goals is any fun but it’s those tough, “close but no cigar” losses, such as the Watertown-Pomperaug game, that hurt the most — especially with the circumstances under which NHS came up short in that recent game.

Watertown-Pomperaug went ahead 2-0 on a pair of goals the Nighthawks argued never should have been scored. The first came on a penalty shot awarded when the officials ruled that a Newtown player covered the puck in the NHS crease. Goalie Mitch Bloomberg had the puck and the officials lost sight of it, the Newtown players and coaches claimed. The second goal was scored when the whistle was not blown quickly enough on another play in which Bloomberg had the puck in his possession, the Hawks pleaded.

“The breaks aren’t going the right way,” Esposito said.

Newtown hung close in this game thanks to a two-goal effort by Tucker Grose and a tally off the stick of Josh Branchflower.

Freshmen Branchflower, Dave Landau and Ted Benoit have provided plenty of intensity and give Esposito a lot of encouragement. “They bring it — they’re very passionate players,” the coach said.

Seniors Christian Beitel, Grose, and Mike Poeltl also have been solid, the coach added.

Despite the efforts of those upperclassmen and contributions from the newcomers, Newtown’s season has not played out quite the way the Hawks were hoping. “I think we had high expectations,” Esposito said.

The season is far from lost. Newtown is still in the running for playoff berths in both the South-West Conference and Division III state tourneys, but NHS will need to get some wins to play beyond the regular season.

In the loss to Watertown-Pomperaug, the bad breaks were not just in the form of those plays on the ice. NHS was without four players who were sick and lost another early in the game when freshman Jake Solomons sustained a head injury on a high hit.

Newtown already has somewhat of an uphill battle in the D-III ranks given that many of the D-III teams are composed of players from multiple schools. A look at Newtown’s schedule reveals that seven of 20 games are against co-op and tri-school teams. There’s Shelton-New Haven, Bolton-Coventry-Lyman Memorial, and Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury just to name a few.

“When you put towns together you’re going to have a deeper talent pool,” Esposito said.

Despite this, the Hawks are not making any excuses.

“They have a team — we have a team,” Grose said. “You can say it gives them an advantage, but we’re not using that as an excuse.”

Esposito said the town’s recent increase in interest in hockey among middle school-age students bodes well for the future of NHS being able to hold its own no matter how many towns an opposing team draws from.

“It’s something I think Newtown’s going to overcome. We’ve got the numbers in the middle school,” Esposito said.

In the mean time, NHS is trying its best to overcome the competition and earn a spot in the postseason. Newtown, following Wednesday’s game (after The Bee sports section went to press) with yet another of those dreaded tri-teams (E.O. Smith-Tolland-Windham), will have a date with Joel Barlow in a Valentine’s Day clash between SWC foes.

Newtown needs four wins among its final seven games to qualify for the state tourney.