Mayhem looking to carry over strong play towards new year

In the SPHL, the short break after Christmas serves as a de facto pause, a time to reset for the drive for the postseason.

Teams have had roughly two months on the ice, time to feel things out and get a handle on what the roster has at its disposal.

For the Macon Mayhem, the team is steaming toward to the new year with something that it has not had since the start of the season - defensive stability. The Mayhem have won three of their past four games. But more importantly, that success has been marked by strong defensive play. In those four wins, the Mayhem have not given up more than two goals in a single game. The stability in goal hasn't hurt - Greg Dodds, signed to the team less than two weeks ago, has been in goal for all four of those wins - the longest starting streak for a Mayhem goalie this year.

Macon is 10-6-4 with 24 points and entrenched in a three-way tie for fourth in the standings but just three points out of second. The Mayhem fell 2-1 on Friday to league-leading Pensacola and topped Fayetteville 3-1 on Saturday.

“I’m proud of the way we bounced back after (Friday's) loss," Mayhem head coach Kevin Kerr said. "We played our game, kept on them and played a very good all-around game.”

Macon travels to Birmingham on Friday and Pensacola on Saturday before hosting Roanoke on Jan. 4.

With so much closeness in the standings, few games can be taken for granted between now and the end of the regular season in April.

The biggest present key for the Mayhem to separate themselves from the middle of the pack in the standings and challenge Pensacola? Continue its strong defensive play and weather the storm of its scoring punch being depleted.

Presently, the team's two of the team's top three scorers, Daniel Gentzler and Caleb Cameron remain on loan to ECHL teams. Until they return, or in case they remain in hockey's AA minor league level, Macon's depth of scoring that has helped the team lead the league in scoring will have to continue to step up.

That showed this past weekend. While leading scorer Jake Trask notched a goal on both Friday and Saturday, defenseman Vinny Muto notched a tally on Saturday with Chris Izmirlian getting his first goal since arriving in Macon earlier this week. Combined with an assist on Friday, Izmirlian now has a two-game point streak.

The Mayhem will be looking for more of the same going forward.

This story was originally published December 24, 2017 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Mayhem looking to carry over strong play towards new year."