Icing The Competition ... Nighthawk Hockey Team Skates To Season-Opening Win

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — Newtown High School hockey Coach Paul Esposito had a good feeling about instantaneous on-ice chemistry between his new and returning players. After all, many of them had skated together in youth hockey prior to joining forces at NHS.

So far, so good.

Returnee David Landau scored a hat-trick and Immaculate of Danbury transfer Brett Klein notched two goals in his NHS debut, a 7-2 win over the Housatonic/Northwestern co-op team at Danbury Ice Arena on December 16.

“It feels great to start off the season with a bang,” said Klein, who will be joined by fellow Immaculate transfer Rob Norling in a few weeks once Norling sits out the mandatory 30 days for transfers who are upperclassmen.

The Nighthawks opened up a 5-0 lead behind the strength of four first period goals and responded to a pair of Housatonic/Northwestern second period tallies to put the game away early in the third period.

 Several of Newtown’s goals were set up by the hard work of forecheckers and nice passes into the slot area.

“Good passing — great passing,” said Landau, crediting his teammates for his goal-scoring barrage. “It was a great start — team’s bonding well.”

Esposito said the coaching staff stressed the importance of being aggressive on the forecheck and keeping the puck deep in the offensive zone. The Hawks did a good job of that and playing good positional hockey early in the game, then got a little disorganized which allowed Housatonic/Northwestern to get a couple of goals. But the Hawks, in the third period, returned to their early-game form to seize control.

Parker Rodbell and Evan Isaacs both scored and Matt Vitti, Rodbell, Isaacs, Ted Benoit, Hunter Dolyak, Brandon Logel, and Josh Branchflower all had assists.

The Nighthawks, all in all, looked good in the season opener but will look to keep improving as the season unfolds.

“This is a nice stepping stone for us. We’re happy [with the outcome] but we know we have a lot to work on,” Esposito said.

NHS was scheduled to get back to work this past Saturday but the game with Windsor/Enfield/Granby was postponed by snow. Newtown is scheduled to return to game action the day after Christmas for a 3:20 pm clash with Staples of Westport in Danbury.