Ice Bears Clinch Playoff Berth with 5-4 Win over Macon

Sports stats



SPHL Knoxville Ice Bears

Ice Bears Clinch Playoff Berth with 5-4 Win over Macon

March 22, 2025 - SPHL (SPHL)
Knoxville Ice Bears News Release


Knoxville Ice Bears right wing Dawson McKinney
Knoxville Ice Bears right wing Dawson McKinney
(Knoxville Ice Bears)

Dawson Mckinney scored a third period hat trick, Jimmy Soper scored twice and the Knoxville Ice Bears clinched a playoff berth with a 5-4 win over the Macon Mayhem at the Macon Coliseum Saturday night.

The Ice Bears have won five of their last six. The Mayhem have lost four straight.

Soper scored off a rebound to open the scoring 6:43 of the first. Carson Vance fired a shot from the left point after keeping the puck on the forecheck. Baily Brkin stopped Vance's shot with the blocker before Soper backhanded the loose puck in front of the crease underneath the Macon goalie for his tenth of the season.

Soper notched his second of the night when he tapped in a loose puck across the goal line on the power play. Jason Brancheau carried the puck to the right corner and slid it to Soper at the right side of the crease. Soper's drop feed to Noah Finstrom setup an attempt from the right circle. Brkin blocked the shot and it ricocheted off of Macon's Jarret Kup and back to Soper in the crease where he gave Knoxville a 2-0 lead at 14:49.

Dan Winslow cut Knoxville's lead to one with a slap shot from the right circle at 17:19. Yaroslav Yevdokimov dumped the puck into the right-wing corner and it bounced out to Winslow at the dot and he smacked a shot under Hunter Virostek.

Matteo Ybarra scored at 5:13 of the third to tie the game for Macon when he finished off a two-on-one with Zack Nazzarett.

McKinney redirected Vance's shot from the center point past Brkin to give Knoxville the lead again at 6:13.

A clearing attempt in the Knoxville zone hit the referee and sat in the right circle for Nazzarett to take the puck and get in close before slipping the puck past Virostek to make it 3-3 at 10:41.

McKinney scored eight seconds later off an offensive zone face off win from Derek Osik. McKinney stopped the puck with his skate atop the right circle and lifted a shot over Brkin. McKinney completed his hat trick when he stole the puck along the right wall and created a two-on-one. McKinney fired from the right circle and the puck found its way in off of Brkin.

Winslow scored from the right hash for his second of the night with Brkin pulled to make it a one-goal game with less than three minutes remaining, but Virostek blocked a close-range shot from Nazzarett, swallowed Winslow's attempt from the blue line got the blocker on Nazarett's one-timer from in front of the crease before time ran out on the Mayhem. Virostek finished with 28 saves in his first SPHL win. Brkin made 41 stops for Macon.

Knoxville visits Quad City on Friday night. The Mayhem visit Roanoke on Friday.

Check out the Knoxville Ice Bears Statistics




Images from this story

Knoxville Ice Bears right wing Dawson McKinney
Knoxville Ice Bears right wing Dawson McKinney
   

• Discuss this story on the SPHL message board...

SPHL Stories from March 22, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Knoxville Ice Bears Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central