In front of their biggest crowd of the season (3,019), the Mayhem’s attack was silenced by Mavric Parks and the Birmingham Bulls in a 3-0 final decision.
In Friday night’s 7-5 victory, the Mayhem’s biggest concern was their penalty kill. They allowed a power play goal on three straight Birmingham opportunities, and the struggles continued on Saturday.
Austin Daae buried back-to-back power play goals within four and a half minutes, putting the Mayhem in an early 2-0 hole. The first was a breakaway in which he slipped behind enemy lines with just a single second remaining on a boarding penalty against Derek Sutliffe, and the next was a quick shot from close quarters off a pass from Jacob Barber from behind the Macon net. Daae’s strikes were his fourth and fifth goals in his previous three games.
Macon’s offensive woes continued in period two, despite utterly dominating Birmingham in the shots on goal department. The Mayhem had three consecutive power plays quelled by the Bulls’ penalty kill. Macon outshot the visitors 20-4 in the middle stanza, but still could not chip away at their deficit. Mavric Parks was 33/33 in net through the first 40 minutes.
Parks continued his dominance in net. In the final 20 minutes, he stopped another 14 shots on goal. Daae completed the hat trick 14:35 into the third period, shoveling a backhand shot over Ian Sylves’ shoulder to put the game virtually out of reach.
The Mayhem ended the night with their highest shot total of the season, putting 47 attempts on net. The last time they had 47 shot attempts was on March 30th of 2018 in a 6-1 victory over the Fayetteville Marksmen
Parks earned his fourth shutout of the season and 16th victory, stopping all 47 shots the Mayhem sent his way. Sylves was charged with his fourth regulation defeat, turning aside 18 of 21 Birmingham bids. The Mayhem head to Evansville to take on the Thunderbolts for the first time of the season on Friday, January 18th. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:15 pm ET.
