Outliers sweep Pacific Division

The Utah Outliers came away with three wins this past weekend for a series sweep against the Pacific teams in the USPHL. On Friday, the Outliers played host to the Ontario Reign and earned themselves a 6-3 victory. Saturday, Utah faced off against the Las Vegas Thunderbirds and won the game in overtime by a score of 4-3. The weekend was capped off with the Outliers defeating the San Diego Sabers 5-3 on Sunday. 

On Friday the Outliers were led by five different goal scorers. Will Cohen, Sean Morris, Nikolas Schwab, and Nicklaus Obourn led the club in offense. Standing tall between the pipes was Garret Alderman who made a handful of key saves to lead Utah to victory. 

Saturday night, the Las Vegas Thunderbirds headed into town to play the Outliers. This was a game that showed a lot of energy and intensity throughout it and went down to the wire with Utah winning 4-3 in OT.

The goal-scoring on Saturday was again spread out among four different players. Nicklaus Obourn, Luke Norman, Leyton Pettypiece scored for Utah in regulation and Nikolas Schwab netted the OT winner to give Utah the win. Outliers goaltender Marco Felicetti stood tall and took the win in net for his club. Felicetti has been rock solid all season for utah and tonight this game was no different. 

The Outliers played against the San Diego Sabers on Sunday and won by a score of 5-3 to earn the sweep against the Pacific Division teams. Utah got off to a slow start in this game but would eventually pick up steam as the game went on and close the weekend with three wins.

Utah's rush attack would prove to be the difference against the Sabers as the team scored its first three goals of the game off the rush. With some fast paced skating and nifty passing, the Outliers would strike quick and often at the Sabers net. 

The first goal of the game came off a rush from defenseman Kai Sothers who skated his way deep into the Sabers zone and headed towards the back of the net where he made a nice centering pass to the slot to Will Cohen. Cohen made no mistake firing the puck into the back of the net. Utah got their second goal off the rush when Leyton Pettypiece attacked the Sabers zone-wide and made a slick pass to linemate Paul Wauldhauser driving through the middle lane. Wauldhauser shot off the pass from Pettypiece to beat the Sabers goalie cleanly. Lastly, it was Utah defenseman Matthew Koepke showing his speed off the rush as he flew through the neutral zone and took the puck wide into the Sabers zone, shooting it past a surprised San Diego goalie. 

With the game tied at 3-3 and with just over six minutes remaining, the Outliers converted on the power play when Magnus Einarson dished a pass to Will Cohen who skated through an open lane to blast it home for an Outliers 4-3 lead. 

Trent Gephart gave Utah the insurance goal with 9 seconds left in the game. Gephart shot the puck into an empty net as San Diego had pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. This would seal the victory for Utah as they skated off the ice with a 5-3 win and a weekend series sweep. 

Fabian Pozzera made his first start of the season and was sharp between the pipes for Utah. He made some critical saves throughout the game to help the club secure the victory. 

The Outliers' next game is against the Pueblo Bulls on Friday, January 29th at 7 pm at the Acord Ice Center. The game will also be streamed live on HockeyTV.com.