While Dan Fontas had a different view of the Cushing Academy program as a first-time varsity head coach, the path to another New England championship stayed the same.
It may not have been the tournament that this venerable program sets out to compete in and win on an annual basis, but the Penguins took care of the business in front of them with a perfect run through to the NEPSAC Large bracket as the No. 2 seed.
“Our goal is to put ourselves in the best position we can to win the Elite 8, but I don’t think falling short of that should take away from what we accomplished,” Fontas said. “Earlier in the season, it was a challenge just to find our team identity, and we struggled to score at times. … Watching these kids come together at the best time of the year and go all in was pretty special.”
Upon returning to his prep alma mater in 2021, Fontas served as an assistant and Varsity B coach under recent predecessors Ryan Bourque and Paul Pearl before being promoted to his current post. He had a first-hand look at three straight teams that reached the Elite 8 final before this season, winning it in 2025 after finishing as the runner-up as a No. 1 seed in 2023 and 2024.
Despite returning key cogs like New England natives Axel Favreau (Auburn, Maine) and Parker Murch (York, Maine) from the Elite 8-winning squad, Cushing had to overcome early-season struggles for the second straight season.
“I thought we were going to be a pretty electric offensive team coming into the season, but things didn’t go our way and pucks didn’t go in when we needed it most,” Fontas said. “We were 8-9-1 in mid-January, so a lot of people probably questioned, ‘What is going on with Cushing Academy?’”
The Penguins turned around the see-saw start, going 12-2-1 in their last 15 games to return to the winner’s circle.
A year ago, Cushing began the season with back-to-back losses and was 12-7-2 in early February before winning its final 11 games en route to an Elite 8 title.
Though rounding into form took time this season, it certainly helped that the Penguins played New England’s strongest schedule according to USHR’s opponents’ win percentage rankings. Down the stretch, Cushing was ready for the hard-nosed style of playoff hockey.
“I think facing that adversity made us a lot stronger as a team and brought us together as a family,” Favreau said. “We just learned how to deal with dropping a tough game, then we see the other side of what we can be when we put good games together. It pays off in the playoffs, being battle-tested, which Coach Fontas is huge about. Every step is for a reason.”
After closing out the regular season with a tie against New Hampton and a one-goal win over Governor’s, Cushing was in a battle right away in the postseason, trailing 1-0 at the second intermission of its quarterfinal game against Deerfield.
The Penguins responded. Junior Sebastian Mogull scored two goals, including an overtime game-winner, to turn around the deficit and post a 2-1 win.
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The team’s final two postseason games were dominant. A 6-1 semifinal win over Andover set the stage for a championship clash against No. 4 Brunswick, which Cushing faced in the Elite 8 last season. After ending their season last year, the Penguins took down the Bruins, 7-0, in March’s championship. Freshman goalie Mason Raycroft (Wellesley, Mass.) earned the 32-save shutout.
“I loved everything about our game down the stretch. Really, I loved everything about our game since the end of January,” Fontas said. “The guys were committed and had a very high compete level every single day. We were playing very simple hockey — just staying above the puck in the O-zone and really locking down when we needed to — and played with really great pace.”
Mogull also led the Penguin offense in the championship, posting two goals and two assists for his sixth straight multi-point game. Favreau had three assists, giving him a team-leading 36 points in 33 games.
“We had so much talent up front. It did take a bit for us to get going. We changed the lines up here and there, but we really found chemistry that worked,” said Favreau, who wound up moving from center to wing to play on a line with senior newcomers Blake Cash (Hampton Falls, N.H.) and Benjamin Marcolini. “We had different styles of forwards, so putting the right guys together allowed us to not give up a lot of goals, but also score a lot at the same time. That won a lot of games down the stretch.”
The championship puts an exclamation point on one heck of a career for Favreau, who played in 146 games across five seasons in Cushing purple and has improved his point total with each one.
Favreau is a rare breed in today’s landscape, where the number of options for up-and-coming players seems endless.
“Axel Favreau will be one of the all-time players to come through these doors,” Fontas said. “He just embodies everything a leader is — the way he carries himself on and off the ice, his professionalism, his ability to stay mild-mannered, not get too high or too low. … There’s a lot of noise out there, opportunity to have Plan A, B and C, but he just entrusted Cushing, and he’s going to reap the benefits of it. It’s very rewarding to me.”
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What better way to finish?
“Winning the last game in a Cushing jersey, it’s super exciting going out on that note,” Favreau said. “I made so many friends along the way and had so many great experiences, had great coaches. It’s going to be an awesome (final) memory.”
