Mayhem use offensive outburst to beat FireAntz

The Macon Mayhem faced off against arguably the SPHL’s hottest team Sunday in Fayetteville, which had won 10 of its previous 11 games.

But the Mayhem halted that run in a big way, scoring a season-high six goals as they jumped in front early and never looked back in a 6-2 victory. With the win over the third-place FireAntz (24-13-1), the Mayhem moved into a tie for first place with Huntsville. Macon (25-8-5) wrapped up the weekend having gained four of six points with Friday’s win over Mississippi and Sunday’s victory sandwiched around a 3-1 Saturday loss to Fayetteville. Huntsville lost Friday and Saturday.

The Mayhem found success often against Fayetteville goalie Sean Bonar, leading 3-0 after a period. Collin MacDonald had a goal and two assists and defenseman Jeff Sanders had four assists for his first career multi-point game in the SPHL. Daniel Gentzler and Matt Summers also had a pair of goals for the Mayhem.

Five who mattered

Summers: The Mayhem’s captain got his team on the board with some workmanlike hustle in the first period before helping put the game away in the final period. Early in the first, Summers fought his way to a loose puck in front of the Fayetteville net and got it past Bonar for the game’s first goal at the 4:46 mark of the first period. And then in the third, Summers was in the right place at the right time to hammer home a deflection from the right side off of a shot by Mark Rivera from the opposite side of the attacking zone.

Jake Trask: He kept up his recent hot streak and added to his team lead in goals scored with 12. To get his latest goal, Trask skated in, maneuvering past Fayetteville defenders and shot the puck past Bonar on the low left side for a 2-0 lead.

MacDonald: The winger’s wrist shot from the left crease wasn’t able to be stopped by Bonar on the short side. MacDonald’s score made the Mayhem lead 3-0 to cap the scoring blitz of the opening period.

Gentzler: He kept Macon’s scoring barrage going with one goal in the second period and another in the third. Gentzler got his first marker by deflecting a shot from the point by Sanders toward the net, and Bonar was not able to corral it. The result was a 4-0 Mayhem lead. The latter on the two goals came at the third period’s 11:31 mark, making good use of a combined assist from MacDonald and Marc Thompson for the sixth goal of the game.

Sanders: It’s common to see forwards having an active role on the stat sheet when it comes to goals scored during a game. But Mayhem defenseman got into that side of things as well on Sunday, assisting on four of the Mayhem’s six goals. The four assists are the most in one game for a Mayhem player this season.

Observations

Passingham gets nod and the win: The Mayhem gave the start in goal to Troy Passingham after Jordan Ruby had started the previous three contests. And Passingham delivered, stopping 35-of-37 shots to get his first win after losing in his previous two times out.

Second period burst: Teams do not win 10 out of 11 games on a fluke, and the FireAntz showed why with a pair of second-period goals to cut Macon’s lead at the time in half to 4-2. Justin Hussar and Joe Kalisz scored to pull Fayetteville within a pair of goals by the end of the second period before the goal by Summers in the third moved the Mayhem lead back to three goals.

No hook this time: Despite giving up six goals, Bonar was not replaced by Fayetteville head coach Jeff Bes as the FireAntz kept Bonar in goal for the duration of the game. After Sunday, Bonar had been in goal for 24 games in a row, and it’s worth wondering if fatigue from that as well as being in goal for three games in as many days played a role in Sunday’s result.

They said it

Sanders on rebounding from Saturday’s 3-1 loss: “With only about 20 games left in the season, it’s crunch time, everybody is battling for every point that they can. Huntsville, they seem to be having struggles as of late. Losing two points (Saturday) was tough for us, but we had to respond, and we did. Our coaches definitely got us ready (Sunday).”

Sanders on what the mentality of the Mayhem was before the game: “We got to the rink today and the boys were real loose, we had a lot of good vibes and we just felt really good and wanted to go in and put together a good 60 minutes, like (head) coach (Kevin) Kerr has been preaching all season. We were able to do that. Troy Passingham stepped up huge and we had all three lines going.”

Sanders on defense playing a role in Macon’s offensive success: “It starts with everybody. The forwards, when they get open, it makes life easier for us.”

Gentzler on how the Mayhem moved past Saturday’s loss: “We thought we played well (Saturday), but we just didn’t capitalize. Their goalie played a heck of a game. (Sunday) we had the same game plan and wanted to come out and play hard.”

What’s next?

The Mayhem host Pensacola on Friday.

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Mayhem use offensive outburst to beat FireAntz."