Outliers roll through Stampede

This past weekend, the Utah Outliers began their first series of games for 2018, heading to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Outliers picked right up where they left off 2017, dismantling the Stampede in three straight games. Cheyenne has had a rough time this season, as they are in the middle of a rebuild and only possess two wins on the season. Utah on the other hand is currently in the middle of a 3-team race for first place in the Mountain Division. Coming into the weekend, the Outliers were riding the momentum from 2017 whereas Cheyenne had a rough three games the previous weekend against the Ogden Mustangs. 

Game one was all Utah as the team put up a whopping 14 goals. In the first period, the Outliers scored 5 goals; they added 5 more in the second, and 4 more in the third. Throughout the game, the Outliers poured on shot after shot and got contributions from almost the entire team.  Oskars Ancitis led the charge offensively with 3 goals.  Zach Dornseifer and Locke Wischmann each contributed 2 goals, and Zack Evans, Brandon Krumpschmid, Dylan Massie, Kaeden Meuer, Roman Svik, Kane Toriumi, and Jacob Wanstrom all tallied one goal. Krumpschmid also had 4 assists to lead Utah, while Viktor Burman picked up 3 assists. Otto Saxin had a quiet night picking up an 11 save shutout.

Game two started a little differently than game one, but ultimately ended up with a similar result. The first period saw the Outliers dictating a majority of the play, but only managing to get one goal courtesy of Wanstrom. The Stampede also scored one goal, leading to a 1-1 tie going into the first intermission. 

In the second frame, Utah got back on track scoring 6 unanswered markers. Krumpschmid, Meuer, Benji Mickel, Massie, Kevyn McElligott, and Dornseifer were the second period goal scorers for the Outliers.

The third period saw a different element as both Zack Evans and Alex McCloskey engaged in fights, and the game became much more physical. One aspect that stayed the same was the goal scoring. Krumpschmid, Zack Hoffman, Mickel, and Svik added four goals in the third to give Utah the 11-1 win. Dawson Rodin made 21 saves en route to his 13th win of the season.

In the final game of the series, tensions between the two teams rose, and once again the first period remained fairly close. Toriumi and Alex McCloskey scored late in the first to give the Outliers the lead. In the second frame, Wanstrom scored back-to-back goals pushing the lead to four, followed by a Krumpschmid goal to end the period 5-0. 

The last period was relatively quiet as Meuer scored with seven minutes remaining before Cheyenne scored their only goal of the game. With Just under one minute, the Stampede managed to sneak one past Trenton Wendt. Not to be outdone, the Outliers responded right back courtesy of Zack Evans with only 30 seconds left in the game. 

For the weekend, the final score favored the Outliers 32-2. Shots throughout the weekend were also heavily in Utah’s favor, with the visiting team racking up over 60 shots per game. The wins also keep Utah on track to be in the first-place hunt with the Mustangs and Eagles. Next weekend the Outliers head home for a three game series against the Superior Roughriders.