The Duxbury girls’ hockey team was on the verge of capturing the SEMGHL title with two games to go in the regular season, then watched their bid for an outright championship go down the tubes in a 2-1 loss to Falmouth on Thursday night on the Cape.

Having beaten the Clippers by a 5-3 score to start the New Year, the Lady Dragons knew their hosts weren’t going to be pushovers. Little did they realize that despite their dominance (46-16 shots on net), putting the puck in the net was the only thing that mattered.

Playing a scoreless tie through two periods, the Lady Dragons finally put one on the scoreboard when Briana Connolly broke the tie in the first minute of the third period.

Duxbury would hold onto its precarious lead for most of the period until there was less than seven minutes to go in the game. Falmouth would tie it at 1-1, and Shalyn Callahan would score the game-winner on a break-away with 3:17 to go.

It was a damaging loss for the Lady Dragons, who now needed a win over Sandwich to share the league title.

The Blue Knights came into the game with the league’s top two scorers in Michaela Igo (38 goals/9 assists) and Katherine O’Brien (7/27), and only needed a tie to capture the crown outright.

It didn’t take Sandwich long to get on the board, as O’Brien took advantage of a defensive mistake in the Duxbury end less than three minutes into the game.

A shot from the point was headed toward goaltender Julia Hannon, but deflected off the stick of a Duxbury defender, putting Hanlon in a defenseless position and allowing O’Brien to put her shot into an empty net for a 1-0 lead.

The Lady Dragons would get two power play chances in the second half of the first period, failing to capitalize on the first, but scoring on the second when freshman Hannah Murphy beat Sandwich goaltender Kells Casey by putting in a rebound on a shot from the corner with 3: 42 left in the period.

The second period started with Duxbury on a roll, as Murphy’s blast was just wide of the net and a 2-on-1 break-away was foiled by Casey.

A Sandwich power-play at 9:53 killed the Lady Dragons’ momentum, but Connolly came out of the box as the penalty ended and almost beat Casey for the go-ahead goal.

Connolly continued to be a pest, as she went in alone at the 7:35 mark, and almost ended her extended shift by jamming one past Casey.

Connolly’s next shift proved far more fruitful, as Murphy rushed through center ice and split the Sandwich defense, firing on net and having the rebound come out to her linemate, who beat Casey for the go-ahead goal with 5:21 to go in the period.

It took just six seconds for Sandwich to get a chance to tie the game when they went on the power-play. Forty seconds later they had a two-man advantage when the Duxbury defense was called for holding. Great penalty killing by junior defensemen Keri Gould and Olivia McCarthy, along with sophomore forward Mary Margaret Donovan, kept the Blue Knights off the board and preserved Duxbury’s 2-1 lead after two periods.

Play was up and down to start the third period until Sandwich went on the power-play with 10:37 to go. With the puck along the right boards, a centering pass came flying thru the face-off circle and found the stick of a Sandwich forward, who was all alone in front, but unable to corral the puck.

Just 5:19 remained in the game when the Blue Knights tied it up with a long clearing pass from the defensive zone that found its way to the left wing side. A pass to the slot beat Hannon and the game was tied at 2-2.

Molly O’Sullivan had a golden opportunity with 4:25 to go when she broke down the left wing and was stopped by Casey, and with 2:53 to go Sandwich got a lucky break when no call was made after one of their forwards fell on a loose puck in the crease.

The tie gave Sandwich the league crown temporarily, but they let it slip away when they lost to Whitman-Hanson/Pembroke on Sunday and now will have to settle for a share of the league crown along with the Lady Dragons.

Duxbury will now wait for the pairings for the MIAA Division II tournament that will be announced on Friday.

“We came out tight tonight,” said Coach Friend Weiler. “You can’t do that against a strong team like Sandwich, and when we did have our chances, we didn’t capitalize. We’ll learn from this game and hopefully it will make us better for the tournament. We also have to realize that we need to stay out of the penalty box, because the room for error is so minute, that it can cost you when you play a team like Sandwich. However, I do want to give them all the credit in the world. They played a solid game and they won when they had to.”