The Duxbury girls’ hockey team (10-1-1) atoned for the one blemish on its record on Saturday afternoon at The Bog, when it came back from a 2-1 deficit in the third period to defeat Barnstable, 3-2.

The victory gives the Lady Dragons a half-game lead over the Red Raiders in the battle for the top spot in the southern division of the SEMGHL.

Barnstable is the only team to have defeated Duxbury and they did it in the second game of the season on the Cape, 2-1.

Saturday night’s game closely resembled the December contest for most of the first two periods, but only after the Red Raiders took a 1-0 lead 18 seconds into the game on a sky-high shot from defenseman Shannon Cleary that landed in front of Duxbury goaltender Julia Hannon and was deflected past the senior netminder for a 1-0 lead.

While Duxbury seemed to be carrying the action, they also appeared to be putting themselves in a hole by going to the penalty box three times in the final seven minutes of the period.

Knowing that a win would vault them into first place, Duxbury came out for the second period and tied the game less than two minutes into the action when freshman Hannah Murphy made it 1-1 when she poked home a loose puck from a scramble in front.

Energized by the goal, Duxbury picked up the pace, but once again ended up in the penalty box with 8:48 to go in the middle period. The call seemed to slow the Lady Dragons’ cause, as Barnstable made one of its few rushes two minutes later.

Jessica Penney broke in from the right wing and barely beat Hannon for the go-ahead goal with 6:32 to go.

Barnstable goalie Ali Talerman was immense in net, as her standup style frustrated the Duxbury offense on every rush, including one with 3:37 on the clock that resulted in an Olivia McCarthy shot that deflected off a defenseman and found its way right to the Barnstable netminder.

The tide was now clearly in Duxbury’s favor, as Molly O’Sullivan, Kaitlin Sullivan, and Mary Donovan were buzzing the Barnstable end, keeping the puck deep, and rarely allowing it to cross the blue line.

The pressure paid off, as the Lady Dragons went on the power-play, only to see their most dangerous shot sail through a screen and hit Talerman in the skate as the period ended.

There was no looking back for the Lady Dragons with 15 minutes to play, as a loss would pretty much concede the league title to Barnstable.

“When a team has a lead you know they are going to play it close to the vest and I knew we just had to keep cycling the puck and moving around in the offensive zone if we were going to score,” said Weiler.

Out hustling the Red Raiders for most of the first five minutes, the Lady Dragons got their just reward when Mary Donovan picked up a loose puck to the left of Talerman and spun around to fire a shot between her legs that tied the game at 2-2 with 10:01 remaining.

The Barnstable coaching staff could sense they were in trouble and called a timeout with 8:09 showing on the clock.

Less than two minutes later Donovan was at it again, as she took a pass from freshman Lily Connolly to beat Talerman for what proved to be the winning goal.

Despite dominating play in the final period, the Lady Dragons weren’t home free yet, as the Red Raiders broke out of their zone with less than 15 seconds remaining, only to have Abby Woods rattle a shot off the post with nine seconds to go that squelched their chance at a tie.

“I’m so proud of these girls,” said Coach Friend Weiler. “We lost to this team, 2-1, the first time around and our kids dug down deep, played hard, and they communicated. They really worked for this one and got everything they deserved.”

On Wednesday night the Lady Dragons go head-to-head with Division 1 foe Hingham at 8 p.m. at the South Shore Recreation Center in Hingham.