Three For Three — Nighthawk Skaters Win Trio Of Games In As Many Days

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — It’s one thing to win three games in as many chances. It’s something else to win three in as many days. Newtown High School’s hockey team proved that good things do, in fact, come in threes by churning out a trio of wins in back-to-back-to-back days this past week.

The Nighthawks avenged an earlier season loss to New Milford on February 8 and skated past Briarcliff, N.Y., in a makeup game the next night — both at Danbury Ice Arena — then trounced the host Shepaug-Litchfield-Nonnewaug team at the Gunnery Rink in Washington the very next night.

In winning all of these games, Newtown won its fourth straight game and improved to 9-7 overall heading into the Saturday, February 18, home game — Senior Night — against the Norwich Free Academy-St Bernard-Bacon Academy team at 2:50 pm in Danbury. The Nighthawks are in a battle for the third or fourth (final two) playoff spots in the Division II-III South-West Conference Tournament.

The Watertown-Pomperaug team and Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury hold the first two spots, and NHS is competing with New Milford and Joel Barlow of Redding to also qualify.

This winning streak, following a string of four straight losses — including a pair of 4-3 nail-biters — has the Nighthawks back on track, NHS Coach Paul Esposito believes.

“I’m really excited about it. I think it was a good turning point for the team,” said Esposito, whose Nighthawks have just four regular season games remaining before the postseason gets underway with the SWC tourney, followed by Division II State Tournament.

Not a bad time to catch fire as the Hawks look to make a run at conference and state championships.

Newtown had been blanked by New Milford 2-0 in a mid-January meeting, one in which Esposito thought his team took the opposition for granted. The Nighthawks turned things around and turned the tables on their conference rivals with a 3-0 win this time around. NHS goaltender Mike Allwein made 20 saves and earned his second straight shutout after blanking Masuk of Monroe in a 5-0 win the week before.

“I think the kids really came out with a purpose,” Esposito said of the effort in the New Milford rematch. “I think they really came out with a vengeance in the first five, six minutes of the game, and set the tone.”

The Nighthawks outshot New Milford 34-20 and earned the win behind goals off the sticks of Parker Rodbell, Tyler Hanley, and Christian Blais. Evan Isaacs had two assists, and Blais also added a helper in the win.

“I think that first loss really put some fire under us because we knew we could have played better,” forward Ted Benoit said.

On the next night, Newtown opened up a 4-0 lead on Briarcliff and held on for a 4-3 win. Blais scored two goals, Rodbell netted another net-finder, and Harmon Coffey notched his first varsity goal. Brett Klein had two assists, and Jack Martin, Benoit, and Jake Solomons all added helpers. Allwein kept his shutout streak going by blanking the visitors through the first two periods. Backup goaltender Patrick McLoughlin got some action in the third period. The game was not quite as close as the final score indicated, as the Hawks surrendered a goal in the final ten seconds.

NHS finished off its three wins in three days run by toppling Shepaug-Litchfield-Nonnewaug 8-1. Newtown fell behind 1-0 but responded quickly and broke the game open in the middle period. Allwein finally surrendered a goal, but blanked the opposition in the second period before McLoughlin came on for a period of shutout work between the pipes.

Matt Sabia scored twice and added an assist, Zach Waller scored twice, Rodbell had a goal and three assists, and Klein, Isaacs, and Blais all found the net. Hayden Savoia and Coffey each had two assists, and Chris Erikson, Beniot, Isaacs, and Justin Corsello also picked up assists.

Espostio ran three — at times four — lines in the tough stretch of consecutive games in order to keep his players somewhat rested and fresh for each contest. He’s been pleased with the play of each of the lines: The first group of Blais, Klein, and Benoit; the second line of Isaacs, Rodbell, and Erikson; the third grouping of Coffey, Solomons, and Conor Hanley; and the fourth line of Waller, Savoia, and Corsello.

The Nighthawks, following the Senior Night game, will host Lyman Hall on February 22, and face the New Fairfield-Immaculate of Danbury team twice — February 25 and 27. The playoffs get going on March 1.