After an incredible and hard-fought season, Liberty wasn’t able to find a win against Priory in the Wickenheiser Cup semifinals. With many good games, some close calls, and some games not going the Eagles way, Liberty ended their regular season with a record of 12-3-4, 28 points, and coming in second in the St. Charles West division. The Eagles ended their playoff run with a record of 3-2-2, and 8 points.

Liberty lost the first game of the semifinals 3-1, and the second game 4-2 against Priory.

Liberty’s first year as a varsity team, the 23-24 season, they were placed in the Founders Cup Playoffs, and they went on to win the Founders Cup. In the 24-25 season, Liberty made it all the way to the Founders Cup Championship game, where they fell short to Fort Zumwalt East 4-2. 

This season, Mid States Club Hockey Association changed the divisions from last year, allowing teams to play more out of division/conference teams. This season, Liberty was put in the Wickenheiser Cup playoffs. The Wickenheiser Cup allowed the Eagles to play more difficult teams, that were more on their level. Going into the round robin games, Liberty was seeded 11th, but the team knew they were better than that.

At the beginning of the season, the team came up with the motto “Wick or Bust,” which they went by all season. This motto was to help encourage them to play their best throughout the season and go all the way to the Wickenheiser Cup Championship. Going into the playoffs, the team continued with this motto. While they didn’t make it to the championship game, they were able to make it to the semifinals, which is farther than anyone thought they would go.

“We set a goal at the beginning of the season to make it to the Wick, it’s ‘Wick or Bust’, and at the end of the day, we got second, and played a tough team,” head coach Mark Turnipseed said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this team and what they showed this playoff series.”

In the first period, Priory got the first penalty of the game for tripping at 13:06. At 8:39, Nicholas Kuhn (11) got Liberty’s first penalty, getting a 2-minute minor for tripping. Kuhn then went on to score Liberty’s first goal of the game at 5:34, assisted by Lucas Kempf (12) and Greyson Howarth (12). Priory then got on last penalty in the period at 0:24 for cross-checking. On the power play, Howarth got Liberty’s last goal at 0:09, assisted by Kempf and Reid Wells (10).

Less than a minute into the second period, Priory got their first goal of the game at 14:18. At 8:55, Priory got their second goal of the game. Priory got the first penalty of the period for holding at 6:14. Kuhn got the last penalty of the game at 2:39 for cross-checking.

Priory once again opened the period with a goal at 10:11, which was also the game winning goal. At 9:20, Jake Meyer (10) got a 2-minute minor penalty for holding. Priory got the last penalty of the game at 5:30 for high-sticking. At 2:02, Liberty pulled their goalie Caleb Hudson (9) to gain an extra player on the ice in hopes to score another goal and tie the game up. With the empty net, Priory was able to get an empty net goal at 1:23. 

“I think we played the rest of the game strong, but in the end, they were just a better team than that. I think, honestly, I think we outplayed them, but you know, things just went their way,” assistant coach and former Liberty player Keaton Howarth said.

After Priory celebrated moving on and Liberty hugged each other, the teams lined up for the handshake line then went to their respective locker rooms. 

“I feel like I played pretty good, I feel like I left it all of that in the table and it wasn’t enough,” Kempf said. “That’s a really good team, they’re going to the finals for a reason, so… I’m just proud to be captaining this team for the last three years. I’m gonna miss every single one of those guys and I feel like they all played an amazing game. That’s the closest that… we were up 2-0, we were feeling good, they were getting scared, we had them on their heels, so they fought back and, they got the win. They deserved it, they were a better team tonight.”