UPDATE: The Division III State Tournament opener at Danbury Ice Arena has been scheduled for Monday, March 4, at 4:15 pm.

The No. 4 Newtown-New Fairfield hockey team took on No. 1 New Milford in the South-West Conference Tournament semifinals at Danbury Ice Arena on February 27. Despite a strong showing, the Nighthawks fell 4-2.

Sophomore defenseman Colby Cheneski, assisted by Jared Ku, scored his first high school goal to tie things at 1-1. The second goal came in the third with about nine minutes to play to pull NNF within one at 3-2. The goal came off a goalmouth scramble deposited by Blake Ballard. Alex Schmidt picked up his 42nd point of the year with his efforts at the front of the net.

Garrett McCollam stood tall in net again, keeping the team within striking distance throughout. Without the steady play in the crease the game could have gotten away early rather than late. McCollam recorded 28 saves on 32 shots with NNF putting up 18 shots on goal in a well-played, hard-fought battle by both teams.

The Nighthawks will return to action in the Division III State Tournament on Monday, March 4. NNF is the No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 Newington in the first round Monday, March 4 at 4:15 pm. Complete bracket is available at casciac.org.

NNF wrapped up its regular season on February 24. The Hawks returned to the ice after a week off to face top five D-II squad Amity of Woodbridge, also in Danbury. The NNF team held its own for the better of two periods before the Spartans capitalized on a few mistakes and broke open a tight game on the scoreboard for an 8-2 win.

Amity got on the board first taking advantage on the power play. A short time later the opportunistic Amity bunch overwhelmed the third line of the hometown Hawks and got inside the defense finding a lane to rip one into the net, taking a 2-0 lead into the locker room heading to the middle period. The Hawks, although they played hard and had opportunities, seemed a half step slow against the D-II squad and were unable to muster even a shot on goal in the first while McCollam turned back 11 of 13.

The second period saw the Hawks continue to work hard but fail to generate any type of sustained offense, something that has plagued them in recent weeks. Amity extended the lead to 3-0 just a few minutes before the halfway point in the game on bang-bang play that saw all three Amity forwards touch the puck. A few minutes later NNF broke the ice when Schmidt snapped one in over the Spartan goalie from a tough angle. The play was set in motion when Ku dropped a puck into the corner and Patrick Moody offered support allowing Schmidt to gather in the puck and walk out of the corner for the goal.

With the score still 3-1 and with under two and half minutes remaining in the period it appeared that the Hawks who were being out shot 25-5 at the time had caught a break when Amity was sent to the penalty box for hooking, setting up a Hawk power play and an opportunity to pull closer and make a game of it. With the Hawks beginning to find a bit of momentum it was quickly extinguished as Amity exploited the Hawk power play not once but twice with breakaways in a 1:22 second span leaving their goaltender alone to defend the net. Try as he might, the first shot barely snuck in as McCollam did the splits, but the Spartan forward outlasted him and was able to tuck the puck inside the skate and post. The second had the Hawks looking to exit their own end but with a steal and a Hawk desperately chasing, the Amity player sent a laser into the net.

It was suddenly a 5-2 game and with NNF reeling, Amity came right back at even strength and deposited a rebound to extend the lead. NNF regrouped after dissecting what occurred and played a relatively competitive third period with both teams trading opportunities. NNF got a bit closer when Luca Moura stuffed in a rebound from in tight off a scramble in front on the power play. Sebastion Cilia and Schmidt assisted the play. Unfortunately for the home town kids it was too little too late and Amity closed it out adding two additional goals, one coming off the rush getting behind the defense and whipping one blocker side high. The other came after the zone defense collapsed and didn’t get under sticks or push out the attacking forwards leading to an easy chip-in. The puck worked its way across the goal mouth and ended up in the net following a series of McCollam saves. McCollam ended the day with 31 saves on 39 shots.

The last regular season contest of the year was also the annual Whitmore fundraiser game for the Collin Whitmore Foundation in honor of Collin Whitmore, who had dreams of playing high school hockey but succumbed to arteriovenous malformation at an early age. The Hawks took great pride in honoring Collin by wearing jerseys prominently featuring his number 7 in a heart on the sleeves and utilizing green tape on sticks in a show of support for the organization. (www.collingwhitmore.org).

The NNF JV squad split games with Bethel-Brookfield-Danbury-Immaculate (BBDI) on February 20 and 22. The younger Hawks dominated the first contest and took home the convincing 5-0 victory. The first period was scoreless but saw the Hawks control the zone time and shots on goal 13-2. Defenseman Antonio DiBiase got the party started in the second period with the first goal. Jack Meade fed the puck up the boards to DiBiase who sent it home.]

A few minutes later it was Jackson Molison lighting the lamp as he zipped one from the mid slot area, assisted by Atilla Balla and Cameron Longhi. The lead was further extended when Patrick Moody got loose and snapped one high off a nice pass from Jake DeBellis in the slot as well. Albano added the secondary assist as he was subbing in for some missing players on JV and the group took the 3-0 lead to the final period.

The third period brought more of the same with NNF dominating the zone time but occasionally getting careless, leading to some big stops by sophomore goaltender Carter Bisson. Moody added his second of the game taking a pass from Jack Meade and cruising in uncontested to find the back of the net. The scoring was complete when defenseman Vince Schuchat let a bomb go from the high slot just inside the blueline. Balla made the feed that led to the blast. Bisson was tested only 13 times in the contest but came up big on several occasions in recording the shutout victory.

The same two teams battled it out again just two days later and the score was similar but favored the boys from BBDI as they prevailed 4-0. The game featured more of the same from NNF which once again had the edge in zone time and shots 39-19 but ironically, they were unable to put any past the BBDI netminder in this one.

BBDI took a 2-0 lead in the first period and then added a single tally in both the second and third. Once again Bisson was solid in goal for the Hawks but lacked the same support he had earlier in the week. The team concludes its ten-game mini season with a record of 3-4-3 with numerous players making strides throughout and improving as the season wore on. Bisson played all ten and was the backbone of the squad. Balla led the forwards in scoring while sophomore Colby Cheneski led the point battle on defense playing in only seven games after returning from injury.