A slow start was something the Joel Barlow/Weston/Abbott Tech (JBWA) hockey team would
later pay for in its game against Newtown/New Fairfield.
Less than a minute into the action, the host Knights were already trailing the competition on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Breaking through their opponent’s defense was also a challenge, as they fell 3-0 at the Danbury Ice Arena.
“We have a way of not starting games firing on all cylinders,” said JBWA head coach Bob Stearns. “I think the same thing happened tonight on the very first shift.”
The Knights found themselves having to play catch-up quite early. Only 31 seconds after the opening face-off, Newtown’s Patrick Moody was open in front of the Falcon goal. Taking a pass from teammate Ryan Anderson, he sent it past Knight goalie Connor Thomas for the score with 14:29 left to go in the first period.
JBWA was called for a couple of penalties later in the period. Although successfully killing them off, it could not muster anything at the other end of the ice and still trailed 1-0.
Newtown/New Fairfield goalie Garrett McCollam repeatedly turned away Knight shots in the second frame, including one by JBWA’s Wes Arees on a breakaway with 3:08 left. Theo Spitzer and Chris Nesto were also turned away as the score remained unchanged.
“McCollam at the net played phenomenally, especially late in the second and in the third period,” said Stearns. “He made some great saves.”
It appeared that the Knights would even things up in the third period when they scored with 11:12 left, only to have the play called off as the goal came loose from its moorings. Six minutes later, they came close when a shot by Spitzer slid under McCollam but went wide right of the goal.
“Those are the brakes and that’s what happens,” said Stearns. “There’s not much you can do about it.”
After being held at bay since their early goal, the Nighthawks broke through again with 3:42 left when Alex Schmidt redirected a pass from John Kenny to give his team some breathing room.
In the last minute of play the Knights pulled Thomas to give themselves an extra skater, but the Nighthawks managed to take advantage of the open net and Schmidt scored unassisted with 45.3 seconds remaining to ice the game.
“Newtown came out, and they beat us to every puck,” said Stearns. “I give them a lot of credit. They played a good, hard game.”
JBWA is now 2-4 overall after losing a close one to Westhill/Stamford on Friday, 2-1. The Knights start a four-game homestand when they face off against Northeastern on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 8:15 p.m at the Danbury Ice Arena. They’ll host John Jay on Thursday, Jan. 11 at 8:15 p.m., Cheshire on Monday, Jan. 15 at 3 p.m. and Masuk on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 5:30 p.m.
