Following their phenomenal regular season which ended with a record of 16-1-3, there was still speculation on how Duchesne would roll into the Wickenheiser Cup Playoffs.  After all, this is Duchesne's first appearance in the Wick Cup Playoffs since the 2020-21 season where they were knocked out in the Semifinals.  Furthermore, with the teams only loss of the season coming in the final game, it would be easy to speculate that they might be a little "down" going into the playoffs.

Those notions were quickly dispelled on Monday Night. Feb. 3, when Duchesne put away MICDS in Game 1 by a score of 5-1.  Despite the late start of 10:00pm, the Pioneers were wide awake for this game.

The first score of the game did not come until late in the first period when Senior Nick Morgan scored off of face-off assist from Freshman Owen Kelsey with 2:06 left in the period.  In the second period, Senior Carson Kuhn put away goal #2 off of an assist from Trenton Gebben-Thompson.  Just 26 seconds after that goal, Senior Nick Morgan put away his second goal of the night to make it 3-0 Duchesne with 5:42 left in period two.  Before that period ended, however, Morgan got his hat trick for the night with 2:47 left in the second period off of a great assist from Sophomore Max Hackmann.

With a 4-0 lead going into the third period, Senior Trenton Gebben-Thompson was looking to simply dump the puck into the offensive zone for a regular shift change.  He put the puck right on goal and somehow the goalie for MICDS misplayed the puck and it went off of his glove and into the net for a Duchesne goal to make it 5-0 just 53 seconds into the third period.

The 5-0 score stayed that way until just 2:42 left in the game when Duchesne gave up the only goal of the game to MICDS.  This was due to the outstanding play of Junior Goalie Quinn Meyer who stopped 29 of 30 shots on goal.  It was also due to the outstanding play of the Duchesne defense which rarely gave MICDS good looks at the goal.  They also were successful in killing off three MICDS power plays throughout the game.

Playoff Game number two takes place tonight, Feb. 4, at 8:30pm at Webster Ice Arena.  With a win or a tie in the game, Duchesne will move on to Round 2 of the Wick Cup Playoffs against Rockwood Summit.  In the event of a loss, both teams would play a 10:00 minute "mini game" which will determine the winner of round 1.  Should that go to a tie, there would be a shootout immediately afterwards.

Despite the late start, several Duchesne students made the journey to Maryville University Hockey Center for the game and they got to see a good one.  The team hopes to see even more in the stands for Game #2 tonight.  Go Pioneers!!