Newtown Hockey Team Shows Heart, Works Hard For Tie

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — Generally speaking, ties are not preferred by athletes and coaches. Somebody’s got to win, right? Well, the Newtown High School hockey team skated away pretty happy with the outcome, a tie score, on January 30.

The Nighthawks, after all, overcame a 3-1 second-period deficit to score a pair of power play goals and earn a hard-fought 3-3 draw with the Bethel-Brookfield-Danbury tri-town team at Danbury Ice Arena.

Newtown, a Division III team, battled back against the South-West Conference foe in a game that had Head Coach Paul Esposito and his staff encouraged about the prospects for a strong finish to the campaign.

NHS kept the puck deep in the IceCats’ end of the rink for much of the second half of the game and peppered IceCat goaltender Luiz Dibble with 38 shots. The Nighthawks just kept coming and applying pressure — even after a five-minute major penalty was called against the Hawks in the eight-minute overtime, much to the disbelief of Esposito.

“That was the most heart we’ve show in any game,” Esposito said. “It was a good crowd. That was a classic hockey game right there.”

Newtown, heading into Wednesday’s game with Joel Barlow (after The Bee sports section went to press), stood at 7-4-1 and in need of just another tie or a win in its remaining eight games to qualify for the D-III playoffs. The team was also on the brink of qualifying for the SWC D-II tourney pending the Barlow result and the outcome of the Watertown-Pomperaug versus Masuk game on Wednesday, Esposito said.

Bethel-Brookfield-Danbury (9-2-1) remains one of the best teams in the conference standings and Esposito was thrilled to see his team put in such a good showing against this opponent.

Newtown set the tone early, outshooting the IceCats 10-3 from the onset. “I think we were taking the game to them,” Esposito said.

But the IceCats had the next ten shots on goal and scored first. “I think the air came out of the tires right after that goal,” Esposito said.

The IceCats kept pressuring the Nighthawks and eventually scored again for a 2-0 lead through one period of play. Both goals were scored on the power play.

Still trailing 2-0 late in the second, Parker Rodbell redirected a Sean Kennedy blast from the point for a goal to slice the lead in half with 3:35 to play in the middle period. Just 10 seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Kennedy was whistled for a penalty and only five seconds later the IceCats again capitalized for their third man-advantage goal.

But what the Nighthawks giveth they taketh away. Newtown cashed in on consecutive IceCats’ penalties for a 5-on-3 power play goal and a 5-on-4 man advantage tally in the final 1:12 of the wild second period.

Evan Isaacs camped out in front of the IceCats’ net and jammed home rebounds of shots from the point for both tallies. Forward Rob Norling, playing the point because of his hard shot, on the power play, and David Landau both assisted each of the tallies. Landau’s shot set up the first goal and Norling’s shot gave him the primary assist on the second tally, which came with just 39 seconds left in the period.

“The guys just got shots in from the point. If they didn’t take those shots I wouldn’t have gotten those goals,” Isaacs said.

Newtown ended the game with a 38-29 shots on goal advantage. Dylan Deselin started in goal and Mike Allwein was brought into the game to shake things up, Esposito said. The coach added that Allwein and Dibble were teammates in Pee Wee hockey under Esposito and that he thought Allwein would do well with the opportunity to play in the same game with a familiar goalie at the other end. Deselin and Allwein combined for 26 saves.

Kennedy was whistled for five minutes for kicking another player in overtime — a call Esposito was not happy with and which meant Kennedy would have to sit out the Barlow game. Newtown, however, drew a penalty on the IceCats to even things up. The teams combined for six overtime penalties and Newtown ended up with a late-game abbreviated power play but could not convert despite several clear shots from the outside and a 6-1 shots advantage in OT.

“It was the most intense they’ve played this year,” said Assistant Coach Mike Jones who, while in the locker room told the players they had every reason to be pleased with this tie. “You battled back, you worked your butts off — you made good plays,” he told them.