Andrew Sanchez, a sophomore on the Newtown-New Fairfield hockey team, provided a bright spot with his first varsity goal in the Nighthawks’ 6-1 loss to a desperate Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury squad clawing to qualify for the playoffs, at Danbury Ice Arena on February 21.

Sanchez scored on a power play off a deflection from junior Ryan Anderson. BBD peppered the Nighthawk zone and sophomore goaltender Garrett McCollam all day. McCollam continually battled and kept his team in the game turning back 40 of 46 shots, making a number of high quality saves throughout. Too many lost puck battles and defensive zone breakdowns led to the loss.

On February 24, the Nighthawk co-op traveled north to the Frederick Gunn School in Washington to take on Shepaug in the 20th and final regular season game of the season. In a tightly-contested battle of two pretty evenly-matched teams the Hawks came up short 3-0.

The effort was good and the physical play present. An early missed call, a goal by the Nighthawks that was not counted, changed the direction of this contest and took the air out of the Hawks, according to their coaches.

A few Newtown-New Fairfield miscues led to all three Shepaug goals. The Hawks were outshot 37-19. McCollam once again was solid in between the pipes but the offense failed to get second chances on the staunch Shepaug defense. Newtown freshman Evan Kliczewski played solidly on the blue line for the Hawks, who were missing a few key players and will have most back when the Division III State Tournament begins on March 6. Newtown-New Fairfield is the No. 10 seed and will visit No. 7 Tri-Town in Enfield for an 8:10 pm contest.