Freedom’s hockey team had a momentous season in the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League (LVSHL), going undefeated during the regular season with a 15-0-1 mark while scoring 133 goals and allowing just 17.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end well for the Patriots, as they lost to Northampton, 7-4, in a one-game playoff in the opening round of the LVSHL postseason.

Freedom had a 4-4 tie with Phillipsburg in their second-to-last regular season game.

“When you’re consistently winning, there is going to come a time when you’re going to lose,” said Freedom head coach Mike Kearns. “But all season long we took it one game at a time. Maybe some complacency kicked it late in the season.

“It (playoff game) is one game we would like to have back. I think our special teams hurt us.”

In a 7-4 loss to Northampton, Freedom uncharacteristically gave up a power play goal and two short-handed goals.

“Giving up the short-handed goals hurt us,” added Kearns. “We just weren’t in sync. Give Northampton credit. They came at us hard from the start.”

Despite the early exit, Kearns liked what he saw.

“I think it was a pretty successful season for us,” he said. “We were the number-one team throughout the regular season. We also managed to snap Parkland’s long, undefeated regular season streak (115 games) and beat them twice.

“We played Father Judge from Philadelphia, and we faired pretty well against them. We were happy with the progress we made during the season.”

Luke Day, who had a league-leading 40 goals and 24 assists for 64 points, and goalie Josh Millen, who recorded 13 wins, will be among six seniors leaving the program.

“We have a good amount of players leaving,” said Kearns. “We’ll have a couple of juniors back for leadership and we’ll also have some freshmen back.

“When I looked at the leading scorers in the league, 10 of them are graduating.”

The Patriots could be faced with a challenge, as they didn’t have a JV team last season. Kearns sees plenty of transition with his team and others next winter.

“I’m not sure how we are going to handle that (JV team) next year,” he said. “It is too early to tell.

“But I think there will be a lot of parody in the league next year. There probably won’t be one or two dominant teams. We’ll have to see how things look for us.”