“How are we going to get back to our winning ways?”

That was the question Coach Paul Esposito pondered as he geared up for another season for the Newtown-New Fairfield high school co-op hockey team.

Reflecting on a solid stretch from 2013-17, highlighted by Newtown’s 2014 Division III state title and 2017 South-West/Southern Connecticut Conference D-III championship back before the two-program merger, Esposito concluded that a team-first mentality with a faster pace of play will be crucial for the Nighthawks to contend for conference and state trophies.

“Moving the puck and playing with urgency,” will have to be trademarks of this team for the Nighthawks to have success this winter, Esposito said.

Players must buy into the systems — forechecking, defensive zone work, special teams play, for example. “Everybody learning and improving on each component every day,” is what Esposito said he is looking for as the season unfolds.

“We want to get there and we won’t have success there unless everyone’s bought into what’s laid out in front of them,” said Esposito, who will direct the players with help from a trio of assistants. One is Pat McLoughlin, goaltender on that 2014 team who had been Esposito’s assistant and took the Immaculate of Danbury head coaching job in the offseason only to circle back to the Hawks when Immaculate did not have enough players to field a team.

Skills Coach Mike Bonnelli, whom Esposito previously coached with at Immaculate, and Matt Hayes, are also on board to help with the team. Esposito likes the makeup of his coaching staff and the players.

“We have a good roster this year,” Esposito said. “We have a really good group of kids. There’s good chemistry between the Newtown kids and the New Fairfield kids.”

Esposito described the lineup as having a lot of interchangeable parts and possessing healthy competition. Players will need to understand their responsibilities, including support roles, the coach said.

“When there are injuries or people are sick, people will be expected to step into different roles,” Esposito added. “It’s exciting to see a group like this.”

Forward Alex Schmidt, among the top scorers a year ago, as well as forward Cam Gouveia, who earned All State accolades last season, return to help lead the offense. Eddie Faircloth, Ryan Anderson, and Harris Quinn are also back in the fold. Forwards Gio Cucco and Blake Ballard both return after missing last year due to injury. Another returnee/newcomer is forward/defender Adrian Wadwha who returns to the ice after not suiting up with Newtown-New Fairfield last year.

The defensive corps is led by New Fairfield with Sebastian Cilia, Ashton Albert and Meghan DeBellis back on the blue line and joined by Newtown representative Brayden Magliulo.

Goaltending will have a new look and a trio of netminders are contending for starting time: Newtown’s Max Browne and New Fairfield’s Chris Liguori and Garrett McCollam.

With an eye on ultimate team success in March — “That’s the expectation; that’s the goal,” Esposito notes — the focus will be on the opponent at hand.

“It’s one game at a time,” Esposito acknowledges.

And, early on it will be a lot of games in a short time. Beginning with a Saturday, December 17, visit from McMahon-Norwalk to Danbury Ice Arena at 1 pm, the Hawks tangle with six opponents in a two-week stretch to close out the calendar year.

“It will be a good test,” Esposito said.

The conference will also pose a challenge in general with a bunch of good teams with which to contend. New Milford, Masuk of Monroe, the Joel Barlow of Redding-led cop-op, Shepaug, and Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury are among the foes that stand to give the Hawks a run for their money.

“We’re going to have good, tough competition every game,” Esposito said. “It’s good to see. It’s good for local hockey.”

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.