Macon stuns Peoria in playoff opener

Advantage, Mayhem.

The Macon Mayhem are one game away from advancing to the SPHL President's Cup semifinals following Wednesday's 3-2 victory against the league's top-seeded playoff team, Peoria.

Macon, the eighth seed in the playoffs, needs to win one of the next two games in the series to advance. The series will end, one way or another, in Peoria.

The Mayhem feasted on a strong scoring effort from their playoff-seasoned scorers and stellar goaltending of Garrett Bartus, who stopped 41 of 43 shots and preserved a one-goal lead through the entire third period as Macon took the series lead.

Shawn Skelly carried over a strong regular season into the playoffs, scoring a goal and having two assists. Jake Trask, who was traded to Macon from Peoria earlier this season, scored the game-winning goal with 1:15 to play in the second period.

FIVE WHO MATTERED

Skelly: Found a way to become involved on multiple scoring occasions, tallying three points on two assists and a goal. He made Peoria pay for giving him a crease in second period, slapping a shot past Peoria goalie David Jacobson from the left slot for a 2-1 Macon lead with 13:14 to go in the period.

Brewer: With the Mayhem down 1-0 early, they needed a spark. They got it courtesy of Brewer's right-side blast with 4:21 remaining in the first period.

Bartus: If the Mayhem's plan was to put the game on Bartus' shoulders and rely on him to preserve the win, it worked. He stopped all but two shots with Macon clinging to a one-goal lead going into the third period, and he he stood strong.

Trask: With Peoria having knotted the game at 2, Trask moved Macon back to the front in the waning stages of the second period. His shot toward the goal from the left side of the Peoria zone toward the goal was misplayed by Jacobson, who could only helplessly watch as it trickled into the goal for a 3-2 Mayhem lead.

Cody Dion: His power-play goal nearly 10 minutes into the game got the Rivermen on the board first.

OBSERVATIONS

Eat it up: With strong play in goal and the lead in hand, Macon opted to use a good chunk of the third period to kill time off the clock by spreading out on offense and pushing longer passes down and across the ice. That, combined with a game-long effort to minimize Peoria's scoring chances near the center of the attacking zone, keyed the Mayhem being able to slow the Rivermen down offensively.

WORTH MENTIONING

Strong play: While Macon has shouldered Bartus with most of the goaltending work this season, Peoria has been more apt to shuffle Jacobson and Kyle Rank. One thing to keep an eye on heading into Friday's second game is if Peoria sticks with Jacobson in goal or opts to rotate Rank in.

THEY SAID IT

Kerr on the win: "Obviously, (Wednesday) was a big game. The guys knew it, we knew it, they knew it. I thought we played pretty well. We did a lot of really good things. There's still some things that we have to clean up. That's a good hockey team, they transition really well."

Kerr on the Mayhem's defensive effort: "Overall, I thought we clogged up the middle real well. That's what you have to do against a team like them, they transition well."

Skelly on having a 1-0 series lead: "We wanted to put all the emphasis on game one. Obviously with a short series, you want to go into their barn at least up one. Going in there down 1-0 having to win two games is next to terrible odds, I guess you'd put it that way. We put ourselves in a good situation. We battled and Bartus played a (heck) of a game. The guys played well and we did what we needed to do."

Skelly on the Mayhem's offensive plan: "We were just trying to get shots on the net. It didn't seem like Jacobson was right cue, being on his angles. We were just trying to get pucks on the net and have them drive it for rebounds."

Skelly on Peoria having to now play in a 950-seat municipal rink instead of its home arena: "It might be a little bit of a disadvantage for them not being in their home arena. It's just another rink. Everybody's played in thousands of arenas growing up. So we're going in there with the same gameplan -- going at them and work our tails off for 60 minutes and see what happens. Hopefully we can go for the sweep. If it goes to game three, we have to reset and work for Saturday."

WHAT'S NEXT?

The best-of-three quarterfinal series resumes at 9 p.m. Friday in Peoria. The third game, if needed, is on Saturday, also in Peoria.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Macon stuns Peoria in playoff opener ."