By Laura McCusker

After a fast, 8-0, start to the season, the Brookfield/Bethel/Danbury hockey team has slowed down a bit in the second half. In the past week the Ice Cats skated to their first tie of the year against a South-West Conference opponent, and also took a non-league loss.

Draw with Nighthawks

The tie came last Saturday night, as the Cats hosted Newtown for a 3-3 deadlock at Danbury Ice Arena.

Though it wasn’t a loss, it was a game that BBD could have had, but could never put away. Twice the Cats led by two, and twice the Nighthawks were able to close the gap and leave without the loss.

“We’d been doing a good job of protecting leads, but couldn’t do it today,” said Cats coach Rusty Granacker. “This would have been a good league win. We’re not playing as well as we were in the first half of the season.”

After winning its first eight games, BBD finally took a loss on Jan.16 against Masuk, and followed by dropping a non-leaguer two days later at Passaic Valley, N.J. The team got back on track with a win over Shepaug/Litchfield/Wamogo on Jan. 22, and seemed to be following that up nicely with a strong first period against the Nighthawks.

The Cats took several shots early in the first, with Max Urso shooting just high and Josh Goldenberg banging the puck off the side post. Newtown, though, got the first power play opportunity of the night with 6:49 left. Two players, Rob Norling and Brandon Logel, had their shots blocked by Cats keeper Luiz Dibble, but BBD’s Grant Smith was also able to get off a good short-handed shot.

Shortly after the Cats killed off the power play, they scored their first goal. With 3:17 on the clock, Jared Smenyak took a shot that ‘hawks keeper Dylan Deselin turned away, but Goldenberg was there to tip in the rebound. The Cats then converted on their first power play, as Steven Sieget scored off a pass from Goldenberg with 1:15 left, and BBD went into the second with a 2-0 lead.

The Cats still looked strong for the first part of the second. They were whistled for hooking with 8:46 left, but held the Nighthawks shotless during the power play, with the best offering of the two minutes coming from Brendan Allen with BBD short-handed.

As the period wore on, however, Newtown started gaining strength. The visitors made it a one-goal game with 3:35 left, as Parker Rodbell’s shot just squibbled over the line before Dibble could knock the puck away. Just over a minute later, BBD got it back. With the Cats on the power play, it was set up perfectly, as Goldenberg from the back of the net passed to Nick Martin in front, who got the puck past Deselin.

That two-goal cushion, though, evaporated quickly. After the Cats took two penalties, the Nighthawks found themselves with a 5-on-3 situation, and Evan Isaacs made it a 3-2 game. Then with 39 seconds to go in the second, Isaacs struck again, putting in the rebound of a David Landau shot that was knocked away, and it was all even at 3-3 entering the third.

“It was disappointing to let a two-goal lead slip away twice,” said coach Granacker. “Our decision-making wasn’t the best in the second period.”

The Cats took eight more shots in the third period and overtime, and Newtown had 10, but despite the effort, no more goals were scored. With 5:50 left in OT, BBD went on the power play but came up empty, the best chance being Smith’s shot just high. Both teams had players in the box as the clock ran down, but neither got a goal in a 4-on-4 situation.

Michael Allwein finished up in net for the Nighthawks, teaming up with Deselin for 22 saves on 28 shots, while Dibble made 29 saves on 33 shots.

“When we get outshot it never makes me happy,” said Granacker. “We had a few good opportunities to take shots and didn’t, making one pass too many or holding onto the puck too long. In the first half of the season, we’d play better as the game went on, but we did the opposite today.”

Loss to Raiders

On Wednesday, Enfield came to town and dealt BBD an 8-2 loss.

The Raiders quickly staked themselves to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The Cats got one back when Smenyak scored with Steven Sieget assisting, but Enfield tacked on two more in the remaining minutes to go into the second ahead, 4-1.

At 1:21 into the second, BBD got as close as it would get on the night, with Goldenberg connecting off an Andrew Creaturo assist. The Raiders would go on to score two more in the second and another in the third for the six-goal win.

Dibble had 30 saves on 38 shots, while Enfield keeper Zach Audet had 26 saves on 30 shots.

The (9-3-1) Cats will play on Saturday against New Fairfield/Immaculate at Danbury Ice Arena for a 3:30 p.m. start.