ASHBURNHAM, Mass. — Senior goaltender Jackson Irving made a handful of key saves to stymie Mount Saint Charles as Cushing hung on to defeat the visitors by a score of 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon at Theodore Iorio Arena.
Cam O’Neill staked Mount Saint Charles to a 1-0 lead early in the first period, but Irving shut the door the rest of the way. Sophomore right wing Brendan Agnew scored on a delayed penalty to even the score before senior left wing Joey Bennett gave the Penguins the lead in the second period.
It was an intriguing game with about a half dozen NHL scouts in the building. It was a scrimmage between a full-season team and a prep school squad playing its first game. There was some physical play that included a couple of big, open-ice hits and a five-minute major. It was the first game behind the bench for Paul Pearl, the first-year Cushing coach who previously served as a head coach at Holy Cross and an assistant at Harvard and Boston University.
