DANBURY — The Newtown-New Fairfield high school co-op hockey team won its fourth straight game to close out the regular slate, avenging an early-season loss to McMahon-Norwalk with a 3-0 triumph at Danbury Ice Arena, on February 26. The Nighthawks, after a very tough start to the season and a sense the playoffs might not be a reality, now have momentum going into the Division III State Tournament.

“We’re in a good spot,” said Coach Paul Esposito, whose team landed in the 13th spot among 16 state bracket qualifiers. “We’re buying into a system. We’re all working toward a common goal, capitalizing on offensive opportunities. As opposed to being individuals we’re going into a good team system.

“We made some changes in terms of forechecking, defensive zone systems, playing to our strengths,” the coach added.

The Hawks were more competitive than their record showed in some instances, including a 3-1 setback to Masuk of Monroe and 2-1 overtime loss to the Shepaug co-op; NHS came back to defeat the Shepaug team, also a 2-1 outcome, in a rematch.

“We had some good games. We were close. We just didn’t have bounces,” Esposito said of the first-half season woes.

Injuries kept some players out of the Nighthawk lineup back on December 27, when McMahon-Norwalk skated away with a 5-2 win as part of a string of seven straight defeats for the Hawks.

“We didn’t really have any synergy at that point,” Esposito recalls.

The Hawks were pretty dominant in the second clash between the teams — finishing with a 29-19 shots on goal edge — although Newtown clung to a precarious 1-0 lead until tacking on a pair of late third-period goals for some breathing room.

Alex Schmidt was assisted by Ronan McAllister in the first period. The Nighthawks went on a two-man advantage in the second stanza. Schmidt created a turnover in the offensive zone and drew a penalty, and James Celentano was tripped just 21 seconds later creating an extended 5-on-3 power play. The Nighthawks could not cash in.

McMahon-Norwalk threatened to tie things with a power play just past the mid point of the third period but Nighthawk goaltender Markus Paltauf made a few big saves to preserve the lead.

Another power play for the Hawks came late in the final period and this time they converted. Cam Gouveia deposited a rebound, assisted by Schmidt and Sebastian Cilia with 2:48 left. Schmidt won the ensuing, center ice faceoff and had the lone assist on Celentano’s net-finder just nine seconds later. Celentano carried the puck through the neutral zone and across the blue line where he whipped home a shot from the slot to put an exclamation point in the win and end of the regular-season turnaround.

Newtown-New Fairfield did not qualify for the Southern Connecticut/South-West Conference tournament and will begin state competition on March 7 against an opponent to be determined.

“We get a full week to prepare — maybe that’s the silver lining of not making the SWC. We can hammer down certain things we want to fix. Everyone can rest and we can heal bumps and bruises,” Esposito said.

The bounce-back started on February 12 when Esposito’s squad tied a New Milford team that blanked Newtown 4-0 earlier in the winter. The Hawks held a 4-3 lead until a last-second goal forced overtime. As disappointing of a tie as it was, the effort had the Hawks headed in the right direction. Next came that win over the Shepaug co-op, followed by a big 2-1 victory over Immaculate of Danbury and a 2-0 blanking of Amity of Woodbridge.

The Hawks finished with more points than some of the teams seeded better in the D-III bracket but those squads each have a .400 or better winning percentage which automatically qualifies them for the state playoffs. Newtown-New Fairfield earned 23 points, having picked up late-season bonus points for wins over Division I foe and state playoff qualifier Immaculate as well as D-II Amity. The Nighthawks concluded the regular season with consecutive shutouts. The February 22 win over Amity was a contest Esposito likened to a physical, competitive, playoff-like battle.

Now, it is on to the actual playoffs where the Hawks will look to keep their momentum going.

The Nighthawks will take on No. 4 Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury (BBD) in the first round, at Brewster Ice Arena in Brewester, N.Y., on Monday, March 7 at 6 pm. BBD, a familiar conference foe that also calls Danbury Ice Arena home, defeated the NHS-New Fairfield co-op 5-2 on February 2, so it makes for another shot at redemption for the Nighthawks.

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