Spud Kings had opportunities, but can’t find the net in 2-0 loss to Ogden in Dineen Cup Mountain Division Finals

IDAHO FALLS – If you just looked at the offensive stats, the Spud Kings likely won Game 1 of the Dineen Cup Mountain Division Finals.

How can you out-shoot your opponent 39-21 and lose?

That’s the question the Spud Kings will be asking themselves after falling to the Ogden Mustangs 2-0 in Monday’s best-of-5 playoff series opener.

The Spud Kings were the aggressor and pounded shots at Ogden goalie Dilans Birkans repeatedly, especially in the second and third periods when Idaho Falls was trying to rally from a 2-0 deficit.

But Birkans was up to the task, stopping all 39 shots.

“He’s pretty good,” Spud Kings General Manager Erik Hudson said of Birkans, who is 6-foot-2 and looked like the most athletic player on the ice on Monday. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that we had 39 shots on goal and probably 20 of those are scoring chances. We’ve got to find the back of the net and that’s just our fault.”

On the other side, the Spud Kings had given up just one goal over the past two games as they needed to win twice to beat Pueblo in the semifinals.

But after a scoreless first period, William Cherniak scored at 12:11 in the second for Ogden and Cayden Effertz followed with a goal at 15:27.

The Spud Kings have rallied during their playoff run, but Birkans was a rock in goal.

“We’re not going to change a single thing at all,” Hudson said of the team’s approach going forward in the series. “We’re going to play our game … the puck was in our offensive zone for 75% of the game. If we do the same thing tomorrow we’re going to come out with a win.”

The teams played 11 regular-season games and the Spud Kings won six while the Mustangs won five, which played a part in the tournament seeding where the Spud Kings are No. 1 and got to host the first two games of the best-of-5 series.

The home-ice advantage will be tested again on Tuesday in Game 2. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m.