Newington co-op rallies with three late goals to beat Hall/Southington

Canton High junior Braedon Humphrey had a goal and an assist as the Newington c-op ice hockey team beat Hall/Southington on Wednesday night. (Photo courtesy Newington co-op hockey)

WEST HARTFORD, Feb. 24, 2021 – Trailing by a goal with less than four minutes remaining in the game, the Newington co-op ice hockey team scored three goals in the final 3:07 to hand Hall/Southington their first loss of the season on Wednesday night, 4-2 at Veteran’s Memorial Rink.

The Navy and Gold, who have players from five schools including Canton, Berlin, Manchester and Cromwell, remain undefeated at 4-0-1. Hall/Southington slips to 3-1.

Down by a goal, Newington co-op sophomore Harrison Ranger took a nifty pass from defenseman Evan Howard (Canton) and fired a shot past Hall/Southington goalie Noah Behrens-Gould with 3:07 left in the game to tie the game at 2-2.

With the period winding down, Howard and defensive partner Braeden Humphrey (Canton) worked the puck to get Newington’s Sam Davies free on a breakaway. Davies rifled a shot past Behrends-Gould’s glove to give the visitors a 3-2 lead with 1:19 remaining.

Humphrey sealed the win with a 150-foot empty net goal with 4.6 seconds remaining. Newington goalie Andrew Fogarty made 19 saves to earn the win for the Navy and Gold.

Despite outshooting their opponent through the first two periods, Hall/Southington had a 1-0 lead after two periods thanks to a second-period goal from Austin Pszcolkowski. Hall/Southington extended the lead to 2-0 early in the third period on a power play goal from James Lynch.

Behrends-Gould then stopped several prime scoring chances to keep Hall/Southington in the lead. But Newington senior captain Sam Hedlund finally managed to beat the Hall/Southington netminder by deflecting a point shot from teammate Blake Blackwood to narrow the score to 2-1 with 9:07 left in regulation.

Newington’s returns to the ice on Saturday, Feb. 27, when they host Tri-Town at 7:30 p.m. at Newington Arena. You can watch the game online through LiveBarn.com or the co-op team’s page on Facebook.

Newington co-op 4, Hall/Southington 2
At West Hartford
Newington co-op (4-0-1)    0  0  4 – 4
Hall/Southington (3-1)        0  1  1 – 2
Goals: Sam Hedlund (N), Harrison Ranger (N), Sam Davies (N), Braeden Humphrey (N); Austin Pszcolkowski (H/S), James Lynch (H/S); Assists: Hedlund, Blake Blackwood (N), Evan Howard (N) 2, Killian Ranger (N); Joseph Fortuna (H/S), Cody Brew (H/S), Matthew Ganey (H/S); Saves: Andrew Fogarty (N) 19, Noah Behrens-Gould (H/S) 24