Nighthawk Icemen Skate To Third Straight Win

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s boys’ hockey team shook off a couple of hard-to-swallow losses to begin the campaign with three straight wins heading into Wednesday’s scheduled clash with Masuk of Monroe at Danbury Ice Arena (after The Bee sports section went to press).

The Nighthawks followed up a 3-2 win over the Norwalk-Brien McMahon co-op team by closing out calendar year 2010 and beginning play in ’11 in style with a 4-1 win over New Milford on December 30 and a 2-1 edging of Northwest Catholic on January 3.

“We’re on a little bit of a roll. The team’s starting to find its identity now,” Coach Paul Esposito said.

Esposito said that, following a pair of winnable games that turned into losses — one coming in overtime to Watertown-Pomperaug — the Nighthawks have stepped up their play. “Everybody realized we all needed to step up a little bit more — do our jobs a little better.”

The Nighthawks, in the win over New Milford, carried a 1-0 lead into the third period and broke the game open with three goals in the final 15 minutes.

Ted Benoit scored twice, and earned two assists. His linemates, Hunter Dolyak and Christian Blais, also figured significantly into the scoring effort with Dolyak scoring twice and adding an assist, and Blais assisting two tallies.

Brett Klein also had a helper in the win. Parker Rodbell played a strong game, and goaltender Michael Allwein kicked away 16 shots.

“We’re very excited to finally have a win over New Milford for the first time in ten years — nice overall effort from the team,” Esposito said.

Against Northwest Catholic, Newtown cashed in on a barrage of second-period shots and found the net twice. That’s all the Hawks got, but it was also all they needed thanks to 20 saves by Allwein.

The line of Blais-Dolyak-Benoit struck when Blais was set up by his wingers 2:31 into the middle period, for a 1-0 lead. Newtown added to its lead with a power play tally with just 2:20 to go in the stanza. Alex Kelly scored what proved to be a the decisive goal, a net-finder assisted by Evan Isaacs and Klein.

Northwest Catholic scored late in the third, but it was too little too late to prevent the Nighthawks from winning their third straight.

Esposito was pleased with the play of Allwein between the pipes, Kelly at both ends of the ice, Klein, and Tyler Hanley, whom he said put forth a strong defensive effort.

The Nighthawks, following the Masuk game, will remain home for a 2:10 pm faceoff with New Fairfield-Immaculate in Danbury on Saturday, January 8.