After a few down seasons, Cushing Academy appears to be back as a prime contender to make the NEPSIHA Elite 8 Tournament. The Penguins announced their re-emergence by winning the 44th Annual Groton/Lawrence Holiday Tournament on Saturday. Steve Jacobs’s team went 4-0 on the weekend, including a thrilling overtime victory over Lawrence Academy in the...
After a few down seasons, Cushing Academy appears to be back as a prime contender to make the NEPSIHA Elite 8 Tournament.
The Penguins announced their re-emergence by winning the 44th Annual Groton/Lawrence Holiday Tournament on Saturday. Steve Jacobs’s team went 4-0 on the weekend, including a thrilling overtime victory over Lawrence Academy in the first game of the tournament.
Trailing Culver, 1-0, entering the third period in Saturday’s final, Cushing ripped off three consecutive goals in a span of just under five minutes en route to a 3-1 victory.
Finnish ’99 left wing Vilho Saariluoma scored a nifty overtime goal on Friday night. When he’s on top of his game, he does a great job of protecting pucks and driving the net. In his third season of prep hockey, he’s finally putting it all together. His strong tournament earned him a commitment to play college hockey at Union.
The other big winner on the weekend was ’99 right-shot defenseman Nolan McElhaney. The Natick, Mass., native has always been intriguing because of his size, but never much more. The big 6-foot-3 blue liner can really skate and jumped into the rush. He had three goals and five assists over the course of the four games. His strengths are his size, skating and offensive instincts. His play in his own zone is still somewhat of a work in progress. He needs to sharpen his hockey sense and use his size more effectively, but he has good length to defend with his stick in the defensive end. There was a lot of buzz around McElhaney who had several Division I offers following the weekend.
’01 goaltender Joe Sharib recorded all four wins for the Penguins. He has decent size and moves well in the crease. He made a few big saves in the game against Culver to keep the Penguins in it prior to the rally. Another Natick, Mass., native, Sharib has a few Division I programs watching.
Wisconsin commit Patrick Keegan (Billerica, Mass.) did a good job bringing physicality and a mean streak to the second defensive pairing.
Other top performers included ’00 defenseman Cam Berube (Haverhill, Mass.), ’99 center Matt Guerra and ’00 center Michael Outzen.
Culver has a very good team, and had dominated the field in its first three games prior to the loss in the final. Yale commit Connor Caponi and UNH commit Jackson Pierson were both very good. The defense is very solid. Miami recruit Spencer Cox, Mason Lohrei and Dominic Vidoli were the standouts on the blue line.
