Nighthawk Skaters Knocked Out Of States—

Newtown Hockey Team Can’t Pull Off Another Comeback

By Andy Hutchison

HARTFORD — Newtown High School’s hockey team has made it a habit of overcoming early- and mid-game — even some late-game — deficits, but the Nighthawks couldn’t pull off another comeback in the quarterfinal round of the Division III State Tournament. Newtown, the No. 6 seed, fell 3-1 to the third-seeded Windsor-East Granby-Avon team at the Trinity Community Sports Complex on March 10.

The Nighthawks fell behind 2-0 after one period, and trailed 3-0 before getting back to within two goals late in the second, only to be stymied the rest of the way.

Newtown got its goal on a power play tally by Ted Benoit. Christian Blais won an offensive zone faceoff, later got the puck from defenseman Tyler Hanley, and made a cross-ice pass to Benoit who redirected the puck into the net to give the Nighthawks some life.

Windsor-East Granby-Avon, after a few Newtown scoring chances went by the boards, found the back of the net less than five minutes into the game on the first of Adam Lebowitz’s two tallies. Jeffery Demers made it 2-0 with 4:22 remaining in the opening period.

The Nighthawks had several scoring chances denied by goaltender Edward Burke who, along with NHS netminder Mike Allwein, made key saves to keep the game low-scoring. Newtown worked hard to keep the pressure on later in the game, and generate a few power play chances, but couldn’t overcome that slow start.

Newtown Coach Paul Esposito said the Nighthawks were a little surprised by how strong of a start their opponents had, some of which may be attributed to the Hawks overcoming some sort of cold that has hampered the skaters in recent weeks.

“I think the kids were recuperating from being ill — that might have had a little bit of an effect. We started slow. We came back in the second period, had a pretty decent period. We had a couple opportunities we just couldn’t convert on. The puck was bouncing all over the place a couple of times.”

“I felt we were stronger in the second and third periods and really had a chance of winning it,” senior forward Matt Vitti added.

Vitti noted that the team has improved throughout his high school career. “Every year we get a little better,” he said.

Esposito believes that if the Nighthawks want to have even more success in the future, they’ll need to start doing something about it well before the next faceoff.

“If they want to compete — get past the quarterfinals — they need to work a lot harder in the offseason,” the coach said.

“Our work ethic’s got to change in the offseason. We’ve got to hit the gym more I think,” Allwein added. “I think we have the potential to do some damage next year — and I’m expecting nothing less.”

The Nighthawks will be able to look back on an overall solid campaign in which the Hawks earned the most regular-season wins in the program’s history with 14. They got to play three playoff games, including an South-West Conference Tournament battle.

“This is the best part of the season. It’s fun to get here,” Allwein said. “It’s an awesome experience. This team’s a really tight-knit group. Losing hurts, but it happens.”

Newtown will lose seniors Vitti, Brian Buchetto, and Brandon Logel to gradation but retains the bulk of its players for next season.