Playoff Preview: Round 1

It's officially Playoff time - Let's Go!

The Utah Outliers will play the Ogden Mustangs in Round 1 of the Mountain Division semi-finals. The two teams will play a best-of-five series, with the winner advancing to the Mountain Division Final. 

Utah will enter the playoffs with a regular season record of 29-17-4-1, which earned them 65 points. The team finished the regular season with 159 goals and allowed 142. Ogden enters the series with a record of 37-13-2-0, earning them 77 points. They scored 198 goals and allowed 124.

The Mustangs head into the series with much higher penalty minutes during the regular season, as Utah was the least penalized team in the Mountain division. Utah accumulated (648) PIMS and Ogden (931).  

Special teams proved to be an asset for the two respective clubs. Utah's power play finished at 19.13%  and its penalty kill at 83.8%. Ogden ended the regular season with a powerplay running at 21.5% and its penalty kill at 81.8%. 

Offensively, Utah is led by Garrett Joss, Justin Obrochta, and Kaleb Pitman. Joss led the NCDC in scoring with 37 goals, and Pitman has registered 15 points in 14 games since being acquired at the trade deadline. Obrochta finished the regular season with 38 points. For Ogden, Brody Simko leads the team with 61 points, followed by Jackson Walsh with 43 points.  

In net, the Outliers are backstopped by the strong duo of Marcus Ouellet and Matthew MacArthur. Both goaltenders have registered solid numbers for Utah, boasting a SV% of .918 or better. Ouellet finished the regular season with a goals-against average of 2.33 and MacArthur at 2.01. Ogden is led by netminder Dilans Birkans, who earned a SV% of .919 and a goals-against average of 2.22. 

Team captain Garrett Joss looks forward to the Round 1 series and expects the games to be hard-fought and intense. 

"We're very excited heading into this playoff matchup against Ogden. We have had a lot of good learning experiences this season and it has taught our group some valuable lessons as we head into this series. Our guys are very excited to begin the playoff journey and we expect a strong run as we chase down an NCDC championship."                                                                                                             - Garrett Joss

Outliers Returner Nathan Huntington is also eager for Round 1 of the playoffs to begin. 

"We are all pumped up and ready for Round 1 of the playoffs. We have all put in a lot of hard work this year and we have high expectations of ourselves. We have made some adjustments to our game over the past month and we feel more playoff ready than ever."                                                            - Nathan Huntington

Round 1: (Best-of-Five Series Schedule)

Game 1 (Fri, March 28th): Utah at Ogden, 7:15 pm, Ice Sheet 

Game 2 (Sun, March 30th): Ogden at Utah, noon, Acord Ice Center

Game 3 (Tue April 1st): Utah at Ogden, 7:15 pm, Ice Sheet

Game 4 (Thur, April 3rd): Ogden at Utah, 6:00 pm, Acord Ice Center

Game 5 (Sat, April 5th): Utah at Ogden, 7:15 pm, Ice Sheet

Note* - Games 4 & 5 are only if needed.

All playoff games will be live broadcast on FloHockey.tv