Newtown Skaters Win On Emotional Night

By Andy Hutchison

In addition to it being the Newtown High School hockey team’s Senior Night, the February 20 game with the New Fairfield-Immaculate co-op team was also “Reunion Night” for a pair of Immaculate transfers/new Nighthawks. And Newtown made it a thrilling night to boot (or should we say skate?) with a 3-1 win.

“That was probably one of my most memorable wins,” said Newtown Coach Paul Esposito, adding that it marked the team’s first victory over a Division I team, perhaps in the history of the D-III Nighthawks.

It was also Newtown’s first win over its local foes. Immaculate, which had been a single-school team throughout the years, has dominated the rivalry.

“It was definitely a boost for the overall confidence of the kids and for the program,” Esposito said.

Newtown’s Brett Klein and Rob Norling, who transferred from Immaculate and opposed their former teammates for the first time, stepped up their games and contributed in the win, Esposito said. Klein scored the game’s first goal and helped keep the pressure in the New Fairfield-Immaculate end of the rink during his shifts.

“I think that was the best game Brett’s ever played,” said Esposito, who had coached Klein in youth hockey for several seasons.

The line of Klein, Josh Brachflower (who assisted his tally), and Hunter Dolyak kept the puck in the opponent’s zone for much of the night. “They were really a dominant line,” Esposito said. Newtown’s physical line of Norling, Harmon Coffey and Ted Benoit also skated well, the coach noted.

Esposito was pleased with the play of freshman Chris Erikson, filling in for Parker Rodbell, who has been out of the lineup following a concussion.

Evan Issacs was assisted by Matt Vitti for a 2-0 second-period lead. After New Fairfield-Immaculate answered to trim the lead to 2-1, Newtown’s David Landau scored an unassisted goal in the third period.

New Fairfield-Immaculate’s goal, scored by Ryan Keenan, was assisted by Megan Ryan, one of few girls on boys’ teams in the area. Esposito was impressed with Ryan’s play and encouraged to see a girl skating with the boys. He is hopeful that more and more girls in Newtown will involved with hockey at the youth level and that, in the near future, Newtown High will field a girls’ team.

Esposito credited goaltender Dylan Deselin for playing a sharp game and said the Nighthawks played with great discipline from start to finish and he hopes that spills over into the state playoffs in early March. Newtown was scheduled to visit Shelton on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press) and will face Fitch-East Lyme in the regular-season finale on February 27.

The Nighthawks, who had beaten Shepaug-Litchfield-Wamago 4-0 on February 17, carried an 11-6-1 record into the middle of this week. New Fairfield-Immaculate fell to 6-9-1.

In Newtown’s win over Shepaug-Litchfield-Wamago, Issacs assisted Sean Kennedy on two goals. Klein and Norling also scored and Benoit and Kennedy both had assists as Newtown fired 55 shots on goal.

Nighthawk goaltender Mike Allwein only needed to make six saves to earn the shutout.