The Mayhem survive a rocky first period but surrender a goal late and fall to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs 5-4. Both teams came out flying in the first period but the Mayhem struck first. As the forwards were changing the ‘D’ pairing of Rourke Russell and Malcolm Hayes took the puck into the Dawgs’ zone and converted. After Hayes’ goal, however, the Dawgs rattled off three straight including two from alternate captain Josh Nenadal to send the Mayhem into the break down two goals. Macon coach Nick Niedert decided to make a change in net heading into the second. Tom Aubrun took a seat as Cam Gray saw his first action on Macon ice, and he impressed. After an early Jacob Ratcliffe goal, Gray kept the Mayhem alive through a couple of key penalty kills. He was beaten only once in the second frame as Dillon Radin restored Roanoke’s two-goal lead with 20 minutes remaining. The Mayhem came ready to play in the third, evidenced by Rhett Kingston scoring less than two minutes in on the powerplay to draw Macon to within one. 32 seconds later Devin Brink dazzled the Mayhem crowd with a beautiful wrap-around goal to tie the game up early in the third. Fortunes quickly changed as Macon’s leading points scorer CJ Hayes was served a match penalty for slew-footing after a gnarly hit on Brett Radford. The Mayhem penalty killers made it through 4:15 on PK time before eventually getting beaten surrendering a goal. Macon fought hard through the final five minutes but were unable to beat Roanoke goalie Austyn Roudebush for the fifth time. The Mayhem will have another crack at the Rail Yard Dawgs tomorrow night as they host the second game of the back-to-back. There will also be a guest at tomorrow’s game who has been described as both “cuddly as a cactus” and “charming as an eel”. Tickets and more information are available at maconmayhem.com
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