GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado — Game one of the Mountain Division Finals slipped by the Utah Outliers hockey club in a 5-3 road loss to the Grand Junction River Hawks on Friday night. The River Hawks grabbed the contest’s first three scores, one in the first period and the next two in the second. When Outliers forward Erick Bachtle jumped onto the scoresheet, he only closed the gap to a 3-1 Grand Junction lead. Utah head coach Richard Bohan explained that he felt like the team lagged early on. He said, “They got a few good looks in the second and took advantage and got off to a 3-0 lead. We were chasing ever since. We had some fight back to us. We fought back from 4-1 to 4-3. But at the end of the day, it was just too little too late.” The Outliers made it close with a pair of tallies in the final five minutes from forward Tyler Gudjonson and Bachtle again. Bohan blamed struggles in transition for extra pressure in the loss. He recapped, “I just thought we got off to too slow of a start. We didn’t really manage the neutral zone that well, giving up too much speed and too many shots in the first period.” Grand Junction outshot Utah 16-3 in the opening frame, holding the advantage at the end of the contest 39-24. Game two in western Colorado is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night. The series switches to Park City at the Black Rock Event Center for game three on Monday at 7:05 p.m. If necessary, puck drop for game four is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday. A potential winner-take-all game five is marked for noon on Friday. Tickets are available at utahoutliers.com/tickets. The post Outliers drop first game in Mountain Division Finals appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less