After one week and three games, the Duchesne Ice Hockey team is 3-0 and sitting alone atop the standings in the St. Charles Division of Mid-States Hockey.  Duchesne notched a 10-4 win against Liberty on Friday Night, Nov. 8 and added to their win total the next night against Fort Zumwalt West - a team they had not beaten since 2019.

In the Liberty game, the Pioneers had what they thought was a comfortable lead of 5-1.  However, Liberty made a comeback during the second period and got the game to 5-4 in the early part of the 3rd period.  However, less than a minute after that goal, Duchesne opened up an arsenal of offense and scored five unanswered goals which included a hat trick by Senior Nick Morgan in which all three goals were scored within one minute and nine seconds. 

In addition to Morgan's hat trick, Freshman Owen Kelsey had a hat trick of his own and Senior Carson Kuhn had two goals.  Senior Trenton Gebben-Thompson and Sophomore Hudson Bomerschein also contributed goals in the victory.  Junior Quinn Meyer got it done in the net stopping 21 shots on goal for an 84% save percentage.

The next night, Nov. 9, the Pioneers faced a Fort Zumwalt West team that they had not beaten since 2019.  Senior Trenton Gebben-Thompson scored the first two goals of the game to put Duchesne on top 2-0 at the end of the 1st period.  Sophomore Hudson Bomerschein added to that lead on a power play goal with 3:12 left in the second period.  West then went on to score three unanswered goals themselves and with 11:06 left in the game, the score was tied up.

Just as it looked like the game might end up in a tie, Senior Nick Morgan scored the winning goal with 0:44 left in the game sending the Pioneer students and fans into a frenzy.  A late penalty by Duchesne and West pulling their goalie led to an intense final ten seconds where Duchesne had to battle off a 6 on 4 power play.  They succeeded and came away with a win against a very good team.  Junior Dillon "DK" Kuhn got it done between the pipes for Duchesne, stopping 19 of 23 shots for an 86.4% save percentage on the night.

The Pioneers look to keep the momentum going this coming Friday night, Nov. 15, when they take on Timberland High School (0-2-0) at 7:45pm at the St. Peters's RecPlex.  Like the past two games, the team hopes to see the Duchesne students with solid numbers in the stands.