Mayhem rise to own expectations in claiming title
From day one of training camp last fall, the high expectations were there for the Macon Mayhem.
Sure, the team had finished the previous season, taking a first-year roster to the SPHL playoffs, on a strong roll. But the intent was very direct to not only build on a strong first season in Macon, but also do so emphatically.
And the Mayhem did just that all the way to the city’s first professional sports title since the Macon Peaches in 1962. Along the way, Macon’s 80-point regular season was the third best in SPHL history and its 27-point improvement over the previous season was the second best in the history of the league.
They refused to blink time after time against adversity, whether in the form of having to fill in for key players or being on the brink of elimination in the first round of the playoffs or in danger of falling behind in the President’s Cup Finals before winning that first game 2-1 over Peoria.
“Even in that game in Peoria and (we) went down 1-0, we knew we weren’t going to quit. That’s kind of been our ‘MO.’ all year,” Mayhem left winger Jake Trask said of the Mayhem’s modus operandi. “We’re going to keep working, not back down. I had no doubt about this group.”
After a 2015-16 season filled with a multitude of trades and player releases and signings, a core of the team was already in place. Even with the previous season’s top scorer Shawn Skelly retiring, the Mayhem had confidence in their scorers.
Trask, Matt Summers, Daniel Gentzler, Stephen Pierog and Mark Rivera were among the forwards back as the team entered training camp last fall, and they had a mixture of youth and experience joining them.
First-year players John Siemer and Collin MacDonald were lured to Macon by head coach Kevin Kerr and assistant Leo Thomas, as was the physical veteran Dennis Sicard, adding an element on toughness on the frontline that was augmented by Matt Johnson as well.
They ended up delivering, with Trask and Pierog each scoring four postseason goals to the three of Sicard to follow up a regular season in which Trask scored 21 times in the regular season to the 17 of Siemer and Summers and 15 of MacDonald.
Factor in the returning defensive strength of Ryan Michel and Jeff Sanders and the addition of Daniel Echeverri and Chris Joseph on defense, and the pieces were in place for a big step forward for Macon.
The team took up the challenge quickly, moving into first place in the SPHL within a month of the season opener. But like all teams, the Mayhem had to confront adversity.
In what ended up being a major credit to the team’s success, as many as eight players were called up in loans to the ECHL, including the previous season’s SPHL MVP, Garrett Bartus, whose stay at Fort Wayne ended up being permanent.
The departure of Bartus set up backup Jordan Ruby to take over a bulk of the work in goal for Macon, and his play made him one of the top goalies in the SPHL, ranking second in wins (21) and save percentage (.925). The play continued in the postseason with six wins and 1.38 goals against average.
“We had a lot of ups and downs last year. The way we finished the year last year, I said it from day one on training camp,” Kerr said. “There was high expectations for this team from day one to training camp with the guys coming back from last year’s team and the guys we recruited for this year’s team.
“These guys gutted and battled all year long and faced adversity — going down 1-0 against Columbus and almost not winning this thing — and here we are.”
And there was adversity in the win and loss column as well. Despite losing streaks of three and four games in the respective months on January and February, short-term bumps in the road didn’t deter the Mayhem from the bigger prize – claiming the regular season title and home ice for the postseason, even if that meant not being able to play at home in the first round due to the Macon Coliseum’s ice not being available.
For some teams, it would have disrupted things and resulted in an early postseason exit. But not for the Mayhem. After losing the first game of the series 1-0 and going into overtime scoreless, one goal would have meant the end of the Mayhem’s championship goal. But MacDonald’s overtime goal kept the season alive, and Macon’s title march continued, resulting in raising the President’s Cup trophy on Sunday night.
“Since training camp, I knew we had a special group of guys and good chemistry,” Ruby said. “But it’s so hard to know what will happen in the playoffs. Case in point, the Columbus series. We battled through that and were able to finish up with six straight wins. We had a feeling we could be good enough, and we were.”
Championship Celebration
The Mayhem will host a championship celebration at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Macon Coliseum.
Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. for the event, which will include the entire Mayhem team, and the President’s Cup trophy for fans to take photos with. The team will also be recognized by the Macon-Bibb County Commission during its 6 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.
This story was originally published May 1, 2017 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Mayhem rise to own expectations in claiming title."