Upset-minded Macon Mayhem gearing up for Peoria Rivermen

The Macon Mayhem enter the SPHL President's Cup Playoffs gunning for an upset of the Peoria Rivermen.

It's a familiar road for Mayhem right winger Shawn Skelly.

Last year, Skelly was part of a Louisiana team that, as the lowest playoff seed, upset Peoria, the league's regular-season champion. In fact, first-round upsets were the name of the game in last year's playoffs, with each series being won by the lower seed.

It's familiar territory for Peoria, as well. Once again, the Rivermen (39-12-5) enter the playoffs as the top seed, aiming to atone for last year's first-round loss to Louisiana.

"I think it's great that I've been through that exact situation," Skelly said. "For us, we're just putting the whole emphasis of the series on Game 1. If we can do the exact same thing that we did last year in Louisiana and beat them in Game 1, you have to win one of the next two instead of both of them."

The Mayhem (24-27-5) will look to copy Louisiana's first-round success of a year ago Wednesday night when they open the best-of-three series against the Rivermen at the Macon Coliseum. The second game between the two teams is set for Friday in Peoria, with the third one, if needed, scheduled for Saturday.

The playoffs are reseeded after the first round, with the top-seeded team facing the lowest remaining seed and the middle two teams playing one another.

As a first-year team in the SPHL, the Mayhem don't have the luxury of a higher amount of players having been with the team and within Macon's system for the past few seasons. Luckily for the Mayhem, players such as Skelly, who will be looked upon to continue leading Macon in the scoring column and provide postseason experience, counterbalance that inexperience.

Skelly's 63 points rank him third out of all players in the SPHL.

"It has a huge impact," Macon head coach Kevin Kerr said of Skelly's experience. "Guys like that who have been there as a lower seed, they know kind of what to expect from a higher seed and what the expectations are and how you have to play to beat a higher seed."

But to upset Peoria, the Mayhem will have to accomplish something that they didn't do all year long -- beat the Rivermen.

Macon went 0-4 during the regular season against Peoria, the only team that the Mayhem failed to beat on their schedule. Quite a bite of time has passed since the two teams last faced off, however, with the most recent meeting being Jan. 21.

"They've made some solid changes, but they're pretty much on the same course as before, which is to be expected," Kerr said. "When you are playing as well as they are and have the record they have, you won't change too much. We just have to make sure to do all we can do to counteract that."

Among the things that the Mayhem will have to counteract will be counterattacks off turnovers in the neutral zone. Peoria leads the league in scoring and has allowed the fewest goals.

Despite having a high offensive output as a team, the Rivermen are balanced when it comes to individual scoring. The 21 goals scored by center Adam Stuart and left winger Chris Wilson place them in a tie for ninth among the league leaders.

The series will also pit two of the SPHL's premiere goalies. Peoria starter Kyle Rank tops the league in goals-against-average at 2.15, while Macon's Garrett Bartus leads all goalies with a .929 save percentage -- one percentage point ahead of Rank.

"We have to limit our turnovers, they're a very offensive team, they transition well," Kerr said. "We have to limit our turnovers in the neutral zone. We just have to play a disciplined game with them and can't get into a run and gun with them."

And as far as margin for error goes, there's very little for the Mayhem.

Wednesday's game will be critical for the Mayhem. The loser will have to win twice in Peoria in order to advance.

"In the playoffs, anything can happen, but that first game is extremely pivotal," Skelly said. "You have to put all your cards in the deck in game one and work your way through the test of the series."

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Upset-minded Macon Mayhem gearing up for Peoria Rivermen ."