PARK CITY -- The Ogden Mustangs defeated the Park City Junior Moose 4-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday to gain some much-needed momentum going into a long home stretch.
The Mustangs play 11 of their final 13 games of the Western States Hockey Lague regular season on home ice and have themselves in good position for a playoff spot.
"When you can get two road wins like this, knowing that your coming back to playing at home, that's just huge," said Ogden coach Joe Pfleegor. "Talk about a positive. The boys are going to really feed on this."
Coming into the two-game series, with four points at hand, the Moose trailed the Mustangs by six points in the standings for the fourth and final playoff spot in the conference.
In Friday's game, Dax Hobbs led the Mustang charge offensively, scoring a power-play goal and a shorthanded goal. Alex Glockner stopped 23 of 24 shots between the pipes. After allowing Park City to score the first goal of the game, Ogden answered with four unanswered for the victory.
In Saturday's game, it was Ogden's Devon Detillieux who scored a pair of goals this time -- 14 seconds into the first period and nine seconds into the second. Aleksi Kiviranti picked up the victory in goal.
"Both of our goaltenders played out of their heads," Pfleegor said. "The job of the goaltender is to keep you in the game and give you a chance to win, and they both did that for us this weekend."
Pfleegor also credited the balanced effort he got from all four lines in the victories. He said it was Zach Brannon's goal in Saturday's game that served as the dagger in that victory. Brannon scored a goal in both games after scoring just four in his previous 27 games. The two games were No. 2 and 3 between the two teams that are both in their WSHL expansion seasons.
The in-state rivalry got off to a thrilling start in Ogden early in December when Park City won in a back-and-forth game that ended in a shootout.
"The boys were focused coming into this weekend," Pfleegor said. But (the Mustangs) did have something to prove. ... Park City really needed these points."
The two teams play three more times before the end of the season.
Ogden is back in action this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to kick off their homestand, facing the Dallas Snipers for a three-game set.
Friday night's game is Ogden Police Department Night and will serve as a fundraiser for the victims and families affected by the fatal Jan. 4 shooting.
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