Outliers sweep Ogden Mustangs

The Utah Outliers welcomed back the battle of I-15 rivalry as they played a two-game series against the Ogden Mustangs. The Outliers hosted Ogden on Friday night at the Acord Ice Center and skated away with a 6-4 win. On Saturday night, the Outliers traveled to the Ice Sheet in Ogden where they would win by a score of 4-3 to sweep the series. 

Utah Outliers 6, Ogden Mustangs 4 (Friday, November 5th, 2021)

The Outliers came into the Ogden series on a 7-game win streak and were looking to continue their strong play against their state rivals. 

 The Outliers who have been starting games quickly continued that mindset again in this game as they took a 1-0 lead with just 4-minutes into the opening period. Newly acquired forward Paul Waldhauser intercepted a pass in the neutral zone where it was picked off by teammate Matt Kreczman who broke into the Mustangs zone and dropped a pass to trailing forward Trent Gephart. Upon receiving the drop pass, Gephart ripped a shot past the blocker of the Ogden goalie for a 1-0 lead. 

The Mustangs answered back with a power-play goal when they worked the puck high in the zone and Ogden forward Lukas Washco found his shot and beat Outliers' goaltender Garrett Alderman between the legs to tie the game at 1-1. 

With 6:43 remaining in the first frame, Ogden took the lead off a face-off in Utah's zone. The Outliers faiedl to pick up their checks off the draw and Mustangs forward Dmitri Voyatzis took the puck to the net and scored on the far side of Alderman for a 2-1 Mustangs lead heading into the intermission. 

Both teams continued to battle hard in the second period and traded several good scoring chances but both goalies were determined to keep the opponent off the scoreboard. Utah finally broke through when Parker Williams picked up a puck in the neutral zone and drove deep into the right side of the Ogden zone where he dropped his pass to a trailing Trent Gephart who released his shot past the Ogden goalie for his second goal of the night. The two teams then headed into the intermission deadlocked at 2-2.

Utah then came out firing in the third period and took control of the game for a 3-2 lead at 17:24. Defenseman Magnus Einarson skated the puck from his own zone down the left side of the ice and entered the Mustangs' zone. Upon entering the zone, Einarson would skate towards the back of the Ogden net where he would center a pass to Matt Kreczman in front of the net who shot quickly to beat a surprised Ogden goalie. 

Utah extended its lead to 4-2 just minutes later when Utah forward Miles Mccue won a battle on the end board in the Mustangs zone and passed the puck to the front of the net for a streaking Will Cohen who quickly shot it past the Mustangs goalie. 

It looked as if the Outliers were in control of the game but the Mustangs would battle back with two goals of their own to tie the contest up at 4-4 with 8 minutes left in the final period. But as they have done many times this season, the Outliers faced adversity and overcame it when they broke out of their zone and attacked the neutral zone off the rush. Nicklaus Obourn skated into the Mustangs' zone and made a drop pass to Will Cohen who shot a laser off the far post to give the Outliers a 5-4 lead with 1:48 remaining.

Trent Gephart sealed the victory for Utah when he scored into an empty net as the Mustangs had pulled their goalie. This was Gephart's third goal of the game for the hat trick. 

Garrett Alderman got the win for the Outliers in net and continues his strong play this season for the team. 

Utah Outliers 4, Ogden Mustangs 3 (November 6, 2021)

Saturday night the Outliers made a trip to the Ice Sheet in Ogden looking for the series sweep. This game was certain to be another intense battle between these two cross-town rivals.

This game started off with the Mustangs getting the early jump on Utah and taking a 1-0 lead just 17:28 into the opening period when a turnover in the outliers zone proved costly and wound up in the back of their net.

As they have many times this season, Utah answered back quickly. Just over a minute later while on the power play it was the Outliers converting to tie the game 1-1 off a nice passing play that left Will Cohen alone for a shot at the top of the circles that beat the Ogden goalie. 

Utah then took the lead on an offensive zone face-off where Miles Mccue won the puck and passed it to the point to defenseman Jakub Suran. Suran showed great poise at the point and froze the Mustangs defender and released a hard shot that beat the Mustangs goalie cleanly. Utah headed into the intermission with a 2-1 lead. 

In the second period, Utah extended its lead to 3-1 thanks to the hard work of Nicklaus Obourn on the forecheck. Obourn would continue to harass the Mustangs with his relentless checking and force Ogden into making an errant pass into the center of the ice where Will Cohen intercepted the puck. Cohen walked in towards the net and drilled a rocket 'bar-down' over the blocker of the Ogden netminder.  

Utah wasn't finished with their offensive onslaught and took a commanding 4-1 lead when the team chipped a puck out of its own zone and sent Utah chasing a puck down the ice for a 2 on 1. Outliers forward Austin Tessier won the race to the puck and slid a pass over to Nicklaus Obourn who was all alone at the front of the net. Obourn collected the pass from Tessier and made a slick spin-o-rama shot in his backhand into the top corner of the net. 

The Mustangs came back in the third period to score two more goals to close the gap to 4-3, but the Outliers won the game and continued their winning ways, extending their winning streak to nine games. 

The two teams will meet again next Friday, November 12th at the Acord Ice Center in West Valley. The puck drops at 7:00 PM MST and you can catch all the action live-streamed on Hockeytv.com.