Ashburnham, MA – Cushing opened up the regular season facing the defending prep runner-up Dexter School. This was the first game behind the Cushing bench for Paul Pearl, a well-respected college coach for nearly 30 years with stops at UConn, Holy Cross, Brown, Harvard and most recently Boston University.
Not an easy task for a first game, especially considering not only the depth and talent for Dexter but their coach Dan Donato is among the very best in New England.
“I thought our guys battled really hard tonight and did an excellent job competing against a very good Dexter team,” said Pearl after the game.
Cushing opened up the scoring midway through the first period off a broken play where Michael Penna got his stick on a point shot and tipped it 5-hole. Dexter would respond just three minutes later and even things up on a second effort goal by Bobby Landry jamming home a loose puck off a point shot from Sean Keohane.
The second period went scoreless with both teams gaining chances but the Dexter and Cushing goalies were there to play and kept it 1-1 heading into the third period. Given it was the first NEPSAC game these teams have played in over a year there were some jitters and that was displayed on the penalty column as both teams spent plenty of time in the box and at times seemed like a special teams scrimmage.
Going into the third period with the game up for grabs the intensity and pace of play only increased. Ethan Gardula broke the lead with 14 mins remaining on what was ended up being the game winning goal and clearly the play of the game. A Dexter defenseman tried to chip the puck out in his own end and Cushing defenseman Landon Resendes kept the puck in, carried it to the faceoff dot and fired a perfect pass cross the top slot to Billy Norcross who caught it on his forehand and immediately touched it backdoor to Gardula for the open net score.
Dexter had a lot of offensive zone time in the final minutes and would eventually pull their goalie with their top line of Bobby Landry-Grayson Badger-Cullin Wilson getting a lot minutes down the stretch but it was Cushing netminder Jackson Irving who stole the show and earned the Penguins the win; Pearl’s first as a Head Coach at Cushing. “I was really of the teams effort tonight.”
NZ NHL Scouting Director Ian Moran, a former New England Prep standout at Belmont Hill, was in attendance and left impressed with both teams.
“This was a great hockey game, shots were even, both teams battled hard start to finish and showed they belong as top 5 teams in the league,” said Moran. “Either team could have won, I thought Jackson Irving was the difference here but it was a toss up game and I think both teams are going to be competitive this season.”
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images
