Hall-Southington Loses to Newington-Berlin in CCC South Hockey Championship

Newington-Berlin ice hockey team posted its 18th consecutive victory, grabbing the CCC South Conference Tournament championship in a hard-fought game over Hall-Southington played at Trinity College, Hartford.

Newington-Berlin dominated the first period outshooting the Hall-Southington 18-1 and taking a 3-0 lead. Freshman center Marco DiPaola scored the first goal of the game on a power play. DiPaola also scored the second goal with the help of assists by Tim Ouellette and Scott McLeod. Brendon Richard followed up with a one-time shot on a Jeff Rossman pass, beating Hall-Southington goaltender John Gradante for this 25th goal of the year.

Hall-Southington fought back early in the second period on a goal that appeared to be scored by Owen Kantor goal. John Anderson drove hard to the net on the play in the area of Kantor’s shot. Hall-Southington’s improved play in the period was rewarded when Justin Rose, after a feed from Colin Grodzki scored on a wraparound just after Newington-Berlin penalty expired, to cut the margin to 3-2.

However, after killing off a penalty to begin the third period, Newington-Berlin kept constant pressure on goaltender Gradante, who had to make several spectacular saves to keep the score 3-2.

The victory marked Newington-Berlin’s third consecutive CCC South tournament victory.

Both teams advance to the CIAC Division III state playoffs next week. Hall-Southington will play Rockville-Manchester-Stafford on Monday in Bolton The winner meets Newington-Berlin, the Division III first seed, on Thursday.

Rick Volk contributed this write-up and YouTube video.