SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – The Mississippi RiverKings (23-12-6) scored a late third-period goal to come within one, but Garrett Bartus and the Macon Mayhem (17-22-4) held on to take the first game of a back-to-back weekend series 3-2 on Friday night.
Macon got on the board twice in the first seven minutes. Mark Rivera took a pass from Shawn Skelly in the slot to beat RiverKings’ netminder Garrett Sheehan to put the Mayhem ahead 1-0 just 2:30 into the first. Then, with Reid Campbell in the penalty box for the RiverKings for high sticking, Jake Trask picked up a rebound off a Skelly shot and slid the puck to the back of the net to give the Mayhem a 2-0 lead.
The RiverKings came within one with just under nine minutes to play in the opening frame. On an odd-man rush, Bartus stopped Bret Peppler’s original shot, but Cullen Bradshaw buried the rebound past the Mayhem netminder to cut the RiverKings’ deficit to one.
But just 23 seconds later, Rivera netting his second goal of the game on a slap shot over the glove of Sheehan to give the Mayhem their two-goal lead back.
After a scoreless second period, the RiverKings found themselves within one once again late in the third. With the net empty and an extra attacker on the ice, Matt Harrington wristed home a shot past Bartus as the RiverKings trailed 3-2 with just 56 seconds left in regulation, but they could not get the equalizer, falling to Macon for the first time this season.
Garrett Sheehan (9-8-4) took the loss after stopping 21 of 24 shots against. Garrett Bartus (15-15-4) picked up the win, stopping 31 of 33.
Each team had three power plays on the night, as the RiverKings scored once and held Macon scoreless with the man advantage.
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