MACON, GA – The Macon Mayhem welcomed in the top-ranked Fayetteville Marksmen for their annual Teddy Bear Toss Night, where fans are encouraged to throw stuffed animals onto the ice after the first Mayhem goal to be collected and donated throughout middle Georgia.
Max Johnson would open the scoring for the visitors on the powerplay just five minutes into the contest. Macon would get two powerplay opportunities of their own and pepper Fayetteville’s Ryan Kenny with shots. Macon would outshoot the Marksmen 19 to 7 in the first period but would find themselves down 1 at the break.
Fayetteville would get a pair of goals back-to-back as Cameron Cook and Simon Boyko each tallied one. Alex Laplante would drive a shot into Kenny’s pads. Michael McChesney would collect the rebound and slot the puck home on the backhand to the joys of the Mayhem faithful. Macon’s fans then rained down over 2,800 stuffed animals to break Macon’s Teddy Bear Toss record. Macon would outshoot Fayetteville 18 to 5 in the second but could only crack the armor of Kenny once as they trailed 3-1 at the intermission.
Macon would spend the rest of the game battling their hearts out as they continued to flurry shots at Fayetteville’s netminder to no avail. David Nippard would step up to square off with Connor Fries in a spirited back-and-forth bout to inject more life into the squad and arena. Unfortunately, Fayetteville’s Dalton Hunter would put the late dagger in the Mayhem’s hopes. Macon would go all-in late with a three-skater advantage but was unable to get another by Kenny, who stopped 43/44 en route to a 4-1 Marksmen win.
Macon will return to the Macon Coliseum next Friday for a 7:00 puck drop against the Pensacola Ice Flyers for the Mayhem’s final home game of the 2023 calendar year. Rumor has it that Santa will be taking time out of his busy holiday schedule to stop by for the game. For tickets or more information, visit maconmayhem.com or call us at 478-803-1592.
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