On an evening meant to say thank you to the fans the Mayhem had plenty of surprises in store. Kicking things off before the anthem with a jersey and number retirement for the captain Caleb Cameron. With family gathered at center ice the first ever name and number were hung from the rafters high above the Macon coliseum followed by the Canadian National Anthem and appeared to provide extra motivation to begin the night.
For the second night in a row the opponent was able to find the back of the net first as Leif Mattson tallied his fifth of the season past Ben Churchfield. The Mayhem were driven however as Rhett Kingston began firing everything he had at the net and 1:44 later was able to find the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. Mattson fired back again 1:52 later to give Quad City back their lead, 2-1. Another 1:46 later Aaron Aragon once again evened the score after a breakout pass from Dave Nippard to Caleb Cameron saw Aragon racing towards the offensive zone and a perfect pass brought Macon back to a tie 2-2. 90 seconds later the Mayhem finally punched through for a lead as Rhett Kingston raced in and fired a pass to Devin Brink that he deflected into the net to take the lead 3-2. The Storm fired back again 58 seconds after the Brink goal as Cole Golka tied the game at 3-3.
After the scoring outburst in the first period the second looked to begin the same way as Macon’s Hunter Bersani fired a puck at the net that managed to sneak underneath Sean Kuhn and give Macon back a lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the night. As awe inspiring as the scoring was the physicality truly ramped up in the second period as well with 6 fighting majors over the course of the period and 18 penalties in total over the course of these 20 minutes.
Despite such a physical period in the second the final frame seemed almost eerily calm on the ice surface. Aragon found the back of the net on a power play as a Tim Faulkner shot careened off the board behind the net right onto Aaron’s stick and he quickly shoved it past Kuhn to make it 5-3. As the game continued to tick away the Storm pulled their goaltender and as Aragon tried to get around defense found a wide open Dave Nippard who shot the puck into the gaping net for his 9th of the year at 17:35 of the third period to make it 6-3. Just 18 seconds after Aragon did complete the hat trick with a forehand backhand deke over Kuhn to finish the game at 7-3.
Churchfield stopped 32 of 35 in route to his 10th win of the season.
The Mayhem finish off the season next weekend on the road as they travel to Roanoke, VA on Thursday April 6th, before finishing the season with a two game stretch in Fayetteville, NC.
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