Macon Mayhem once again leading league
The Macon Mayhem find themselves in a familiar place.
For the second November in a row, the Mayhem are positioned at the top of the SPHL standings after collecting five out of six possible points during its past three games.
Macon (7-3-3, 17 points) picked up wins against Pensacola and Knoxville on Wednesday and Saturday, 2-1 and 5-4 respectively. Those victories were sandwiched around picking up a point in the standings in Friday’s 5-4 overtime loss at Knoxville.
The Mayhem have a bit of a lull coming up, playing just twice during the next two weekends - at Pensacola on Friday and visiting Evansville on Dec. 8 before starting a stretch of five games in a row at home on Dec. 9 against Birmingham.
Macon currently has a one-point lead ahead of Pensacola (8-4-0) and Mississippi (8-3-0, both of which have 16 points. Peoria (7-4-1, 15 points) is in fourth place with fifth place being occupied by Evansville (6-4-2, 14 points).
Pierog Heating Up
Macon continues to lead the SPHL in scoring with 51 goals. With so many pucks finding the back of the opposing net, there’s no shortage of Mayhem players finding ways to illuminate the lamp behind the opposing goalie.
One such player of Stephen Pierog who is currently riding a hot steak. The the past three games, he has three goals and two assists, adding to his season total of 12 points (seven assists and five goals). Of those 12 points, five were collected in the past three games.
Among The Leaders
Macon’s Jake Trask and Daniel Gentzler remain among the league’s leaders in scoring. Gentzler’s 18 points are second only to the 23 of Huntsville’s Jake Hauswirth. Gentzer has done most of his work by helping orchestrate goals, generating 15 assists - second to Hauswirth’s 17. Gentzler is also tied for the SPHL lead in power play assists with seven.
Trask is currently tied for fourth in goals scored with four - only two behind the SPHL best total of nine set by Evansville’s Justin MacDonald.
Who’s In Goal?
Macon continues to lean on its two-goalie rotation of Troy Passingham and Charlie Finn between the pipes, with Passingham getting a bit more of the work. In Macon’s past eight games, Passingham has gotten the start five times. Passingham has held the opponent to a single goal twice. Other than those two contests, however, the opposing team has scored at least four goals against either Passingham or Finn.
Defense continues to be a point of emphasis for the Mayhem, as their 48 goals allowed are the second-highest total in the SPHL.
This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Macon Mayhem once again leading league."