MACON, GA – After a wild day of sweeping organizational changes, the Macon Mayhem were ready to roll that over into Wilderness Night as they hosted the Pensacola Ice Flyers. Caleb Cameron would make his debut behind the bench for the Mayhem as the team’s new interim head coach.
The Pensacola Ice Flyers would kick off the scoring as Houston Wilson slammed home a tough deflection off the boards behind Jimmy Poreda. Macon would soon go onto the penalty kill, or should we say “power-kill”? Jake Goldowski would break up a pass and spring Billy Jerry. Jerry would be off to the races before jamming home a score; it would be pretty fitting that the first goal of the Coach Cameron era would be shorthanded since he scored three of those in his playing career in Macon. Pensacola’s Erik Urbank would pot the first of his career shortly after. Then on the ensuing faceoff, Macon would succumb a goal off a strange bounce on Jordan Henderson’s shot from beyond the red line. Sacha Roy would drop the gloves late in the period; the 5-minute major would move him into third place on the franchise’s all-time list, supplanting “Gudge” Gentzler. Macon would head to regroup in the locker room down two and with a penalty to kill.
Macon would kill off that penalty in the early part of the second frame. Macon would have a powerplay opportunity and would be unable to scratch anything across despite excellent pressure. After looking superb for the majority of the contest, the Mayhem penalty kill would finally give up a goal to Mitch Atkins off a rebounded shot from Sean Ross. At the end of two, the Mayhem would be outshooting the Ice Flyers 26 to 16, but down on the scoreboard by three.
The Mayhem would carry over 1:23 of powerplay time into the final frame. It would not be Macon’s night, however. Goals down the stretch from Nick Leitner and Malik Johnson would seal the 6-1 Ice Flyers win.
Some credit should still go to the resiliency of Caleb Cameron and the Macon Mayhem. They found out a change was being made this afternoon and still pieced together a competitive effort. Puck luck would not be on the Mayhem’s side this evening after two strange goals had the Ice Flyers off to the races. Macon’s special teams unit put together a solid outing, and the home side did outshoot Pensacola 35 to 27, a task they had only done just 11 times prior to tonight this year.
These two teams will go toe-to-toe once again tomorrow night as the Mayhem look for redemption. The Macon Mayhem encourage fans to relax as the team goes to work on Margaritaville Night. Tickets start at just $15. For tickets or more information, visit maconmayhem.com or call us at 478-803-1592.
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