In their second game of the preseason, after a disappointing 1-0 loss to Francis Howell in the first game, the Liberty Eagles hockey team tied Duchesne 1-1 on Thursday, Oct. 2. 

Liberty opened the scoring in the first period. In the first minute of the game, on the first shift, Lucas Kempf (12) got Liberty on the board at 11:20. His goal was unassisted. Later in the period, Duchesne scored an unassisted goal at 4:40. There were no penalties given this period.

“I would say it brought some life to the team,” Kempf said. “You know, not scoring in the first game at all, to scoring in the first shift, and the first minute of the game was pretty good.”

In the second period, neither team scored, but penalties were given. At 7:56, Greyson Howarth (12) got a 2 minute minor penalty for roughing. At 3:15, Carson Brassel got a 2 minute minor for cross checking. Duchesne got the last penalty of the period at 1:22 for slashing. This penalty carried over into the third period.

“We’re a way better team than that, and it showed in our shots,” Kempf said. “There was a lot of things that I could have done better, but at the end of the game I think I played okay.”

Starting the period on a power play, the Eagles were fighting hard for a goal. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to score before Duchesne was back at full strength. At 11:29, Jake Meyer (10) got a 2 minute minor for slashing. While on the penalty kill, Liberty’s goalie Brayden Dill (10) was able to block all of Duchesne’s shots. The Eagles got close to scoring many times in the period, but unfortunately none of them were able to get in the net. In the last minute, with both teams fighting for a goal, neither team was able to score.

“I feel like I could have done better, but all around I played pretty good,” Dill said.

The Eagles next games are on Tuesday, Oct. 7 and Thursday, Oct. 9. These are the last games of the preseason. Regular season varsity hockey starts on Oct. 31, and the full schedule will be out soon on the Mid States Hockey website.