In a matchup of a pair of 1-4 sides at the bottom of the 4A Mountain standings, the Summit High School varsity hockey team just couldn’t get over the hump in a 3-2 loss to Aspen on Friday.

The Tigers dropped to 1-5 on the season on their home ice at Stephen C. West Ice Arena in a competitive back-and-forth affair. Tigers head coach J.R. Engelbert said his team struggled with some sloppy pace in a first period when the Skiers put a pair of tallies on the board for a 2-0 lead. At 4 minutes and 6 seconds into the first period, Nic Pevny found Dillon Passero for a 1-0 lead, and then at 10:03 of the period, Carson Miller scored another even-strength goal for the team assisted by Keaton Miller.

“We were a little rushed, trying to force things a little too much,” Engelbert said. “We came out of it fairly OK, though. And the second and third period, I thought we settled in much better, and we were able to start controlling the game a bit.”

The Tigers received their first goal of the night at the 2:57 mark of the second period via a power-play goal by Ranger Stone assisted by Zach Carleton and Boone Steinberg. Engelbert said Summit improved in the final two periods of the game in offensive elements they’ve struggled with throughout the season: having a sense of urgency and maintaining puck possession. The coach added that the team’s best offense has come off the power play all year, as Friday’s power-play goal came from the team’s second unit after the first man-up unit struggled some.

“We work really hard to go in and get the puck, but then we don’t work as hard to maintain possession of that puck,” Engelbert said. “That kind of leads us to running around some in the offensive zone, and that’s not going to lead to a lot of scoring opportunities.”

Summit knotted the game up at the 7:25 mark of the third period via an even-strength goal scored by Ryley Cibula, assisted by Hank Kasch. But Aspen put it away at the 13:50 mark of the frame thanks to an Eli Hunt power-play goal before Summit scratched and clawed up six men to four and then six men to five after they pulled Finn Schroder (21 saves) from net searching for a goal.

Summit (1-5) travels to play at Steamboat Springs (2-4) at 5 p.m. Saturday.

“It’ll be an even matchup similar to tonight. We are very kind of similar teams,” Engelbert said. “It will be a good test for us to go out, and I think if we can put together three full periods of hockey tomorrow night, good things should happen.”