Mayhem Runs Wild Against IceGators

The Louisiana IceGators battled the post-Christmas blues Saturday night in the Cajundome.

The IceGators gave one of their most lackluster performances of the season, falling 4-1 to the Macon Mayhem.  Two former IceGators performed magnificently against their former team.  Jake Trask earned a goal and three assists, while Shawn Skelly recorded a goal and two assists to lead Macon to victory.

The teams meet in a rematch Sunday at 3:05 p.m. in the Cajundome.

“We got beat on 90 to 95 percent of our one-on-one battles tonight,” said IceGators head coach Drew Omicioli.  “I told the guys that we can go over systems forever, but we can’t teach work ethic.  We got outworked tonight, and that’s unacceptable.  They played better than us, and they deserved the two points, especially when a team takes the night off like we did.

Macon took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to goals from Trask and Michael Montagna at the 8:59 and 12:27 marks, respectively.  The Mayhem doubled that lead in the second period, getting power play goals from Ryan Michel and Skelly at the 0:49 and 17:09 marks, respectively.

John Daniels scored the IceGators lone goal on a short-handed one-on-one opportunity with 2:37 left in regulation.  Luke Sandler and Brad Bourke assisted on the play.

“We were okay for the first five minutes,” Omicioli said.  “We had some jump.  Then we had nothing after that.  We had some opportunities in the third period.  John Daniels was still motoring around, but that was more of Macon being content with the lead they had than us having momentum.

“We had 30 shots, but we’re not executing.  It’s one thing if you take a night off and get outshot by a wide margin, but it seems to be a common trend of goaltenders coming (to the Cajundome) and standing on their heads (and stopping shots).  We’re passing up opportunities.  You look at guys like Skelly and Trask, and they’ll shoot from the parking lot.  That’s what you want as a coach.  You want those kinds of shots.  We put ourselves in good positions to get shots off, but we’re passing them up and trying to be too cute.”

Omicioli says his players need to do some soul-searching and find their desire to compete.

“We’re not happy as an organization,” Omicioli said.  “We have to look at the guys who are supposed to be leaders and have them step up and lead by example.  If they’re not going lead, we’re not going to succeed as a team.  (Forward Tyler) Barr gives 110 percent every time he’s out there.  He plays with courage.  I’d like to see some of the other guys feed off what he brings.”