The Duxbury girls’ hockey team traveled to Barnstable last Wednesday night, hoping to show the Division I Red Raiders that they have the talent to take on teams from the higher echelons. Despite their gutsy effort, the Lady Dragons took the long bus ride home, thinking about all their lost opportunities in a 2-1 defeat that evened their record at 1-1.

The teams went back and forth in the first period with few testing chances until Duxbury goaltender Julia Hannon was almost fooled by a bouncing puck from center ice. She managed to turn the shot aside, but a minute later the Red Raiders finally broke through when Jessica Penney went in alone on Hannon and watched her shot dribble away from the netminder before crossing the goal line for a 1-0 lead.

The beginning of the second period saw the hosts quickly expand their lead to 2-0 when Jazzy Megnia took a pass from Keslie Corbett in the slot and beat Hannon just 35 seconds into the action.

Duxbury would get a power-play chance with 12:03 left on the clock, but their fortunes seemed better at full strength, when Briana Connolly took a feed in the slot from Molly O’Sullivan and blasted a shot past goalie Ali Talerman to cut the margin to one goal.

The Lady Dragons would spend the rest of the second period shorthanded, as they killed off three penalties to escape trailing by a goal.

There was plenty of action in the final 15 minutes, as both sides lived in the penalty box.

Duxbury had back-to-back chances in the first five minutes, as Corbett drew a pair of misguided penalties. Fortunately for her team, neither one cost a goal, as Talerman was able to blank the Lady Dragons with the help of her defense.

Two more great chances from O’Sullivan and freshman Lily Connolly went for naught midway through the period, while Briana Connolly had a scoring bid slip by the post with just over nine minutes to go in the game.

Unable to dent Talerman, the Lady Dragons made matters worse by drawing a pair of penalties with two minutes to go, but the defense was immense in protecting Hannon and getting the puck up ice.

With 56 seconds to go, Duxbury went on the power-play, buzzing the net and hoping that a Martha Findlay shot would find its way through the maze of players in front of the net.

“You just can’t spot a team like that two goals, no matter who you are,” said Coach Friend Weiler. “I thought we had our chances but we had the same problem we had against Marshfield and that is we didn’t finish. We’re not picking our spots and just hitting the goalie. We’re also getting caught down too low and not protecting the puck. The girls played hard, but it was a matter of too little too late.”

The girls travel to Canton on Wednesday afternoon to take on the Bulldogs at 1:10 p.m.