Macon Mayhem drop season opener in overtime shootout

A night of seesaw hockey failed to go the way of the Macon Mayhem on Friday at the Macon Coliseum, as defending Southern Professional Hockey League champion Knoxville rallied to win 5-4 in an overtime shootout on opening night in front of a crowd of more than 3,000 fans at the Macon Coliseum.

The Mayhem trailed 2-0 before scoring four second-period goals to lead 4-2 before the Ice Bears tied the score early in the third period.

Macon (1-0) hosts Mississippi on Saturday. The Mayhem were led by a pair of Connor Toomey goals and two Jesse Felten assists.

The Ice Bears responded with a pair of goals to answer the four-score barrage by the Mayhem in the second period. A goal by Josh Cousineau in the closing seconds of the second period and a score by Trever Hertz with 18:14 to play in the game tied the score at 4.

Both goalies kept things scoreless from there. Macon's Garrett Bartus and Knoxville's Braely Torris turned away opposing scoring chance after scoring chance to keep their teams in position to win.

After neither team scored in the five-minute overtime period, the game went to a shootout. Macon's John Schivavo got the Mayhem a shootout goal, but Torries turned back a pair of left-side shots by Toomey and Lucas LaBelle and a center shot by Joshua Ranalli. Knoxville tied the shootout thanks to Jackson Brewer, and scores by Shawn Skelly and Hertz clinched the opening night win for Knoxville.

The Mayhem started slow, falling behind 2-0 less than three minutes into the second period after the Ice Bears' Cousineau and Hertz moved them in front.

But Macon, which outshot Knoxville 10-9 in the first period, finally saw its scoring chances come to fruition. The Mayhem scored four goals before Knoxville's Cousineau took advantage of a loose puck on the Macon end of the ice to end the second period with the Mayhem in front 4-3.

The Mayhem scored in bunches with the second goal coming within a minute of the first and then the same for the fourth goal coming quickly after the third. The stretch also featured some repeat perfomances. Connor Toomey scored his first two professional goals with Jesse Felten each having two assists.

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Macon Mayhem drop season opener in overtime shootout ."