By Andy Hutchison

Goaltender Kyle DiNicola made his first varsity start a memorable one by helping the Newtown High School hockey team to a 2-1 win over rival Masuk at the Danbury Ice Arena on February 6.

As it pushes for a spot in the Division III State Tournament and the up-and-coming players gain valuable experience every time they hit the ice, each win is signifigant for the Nighthawks.

Throw in what happened to their bus when they lost to Masuk earlier in the season and the win in last week’s rematch was that much more fulfilling.

In the first meeting of the season, on December 22, Masuk skated away with a 3-1 victory at its home rink in Shelton and Newtown drove away in a bus that had been trashed by fans who got carried away with paint balls and stink bombs — inside the bus no less.

“The bus was a mess,” senior captain Francis Oggeri said.

Although it is unknown to the Nighthawks who did the damage, Newtown coach Paul Esposito said it wasn’t the members of their rival team themselves.

“We knew it had nothing to do with the hockey players or coaches. They are a good team and the intent wasn’t to get back at them. We just wanted to improve our play and take the game to them, mainly forchecking and playing them tight defensively,” Esposito said. “Of course, I am sure the previous games situation fueled the kids to play harder, but we expect that type of intensity out of our players every night for 45 minutes.”

The players knew they had to focus on the game and not think about the bus incident.

“He [Esposito] just told us not to do anything stupid — go out and play hard,” Oggeri said. “It was great. Everyone on the team wanted it. It was a huge win for us. We needed it.”

“You don’t want to waste energy on thinking about what they did, so we just went out and played the game,” senior assistant captain Max Beitel added. “It’s a huge confidence booster for the team.”

The victory gave Newtown a record of 4-8 before the Hawks fell in their next game, at Sheehan, on Saturday (see related story on page B-3). The Hawks still have five games remaining, including a Friday night battle agaisnt E.O. Smith-Tolland at Windham and a rematch with St Joseph, a team they fell to 5-2 last month, on Monday in Shelton at 4:30 pm. The Hawks lost 5-2 to St Joseph but that final score is deceptive given that the game was decided in the final minutes and an empty-net goal sealed it. Despite coming off a loss to a tough Sheehan team, the Hawks can still take some confidence from their win over Masuk into their final five games.

With Mitch Bloomberg still out of the lineup at the time, DiNicola, a senior, got the start and came up with a big win.

“He looked very solid in the third period of the Watertown game [on February 2] so we decided he should get the nod. For someone who just started playing hockey last year, getting his first varsity start, he was awesome,” Esposito said. “He’s got great reflexes and his glove was hot. He played his heart out for the team when we needed him. It’s not easy getting thrown into the fire against a big rival team like Masuk, and Kyle met the challenge head on. The entire team and the coaches were extremely proud of his performance.”

 The win, too, was something to be proud of for the Nighthawks.

“It was great — a real bolt of excitement for the team, especially since we’ve been on the losing side of a lot of close games,” Esposito said.

A handful of the Hawks’ losses came in contests of which the outcomes were still in question in the third period — including a pair of one-goal defeats.

“It definitely was our best game of the season,” said Oggeri, who assisted on both goals.

Juniors Tucker Grose and Robert Brautigam netted the Newtown goals.

Solid team defense and goaltending were key in this low-scoring contest, which was deadlocked at a goal apiece heading to the third period.

“Prior to the game we spent two days just working on basic backchecking drills and defensive zone positioning and coverage at practice,” Esposito said

The coach said it was nice to pull off a win in such a close game and in front of a big crowd of enthusiastic fans.

NHS student Jake Burg, along with eight-graders Brett Klein and Josh Branchflower, both of whom play for the Jr Colonials Bantams out of Danbury, announced the game for the local cable channel, and a parent, Jeff Corsello, volunteered his time to tape the game.

“We couldn’t have asked for a more exciting game to be put on the screen,” Esposito said.