Published: November 28, 2009 12:23 am      

Mayotte, Anderson power Chiefs past South Carolina

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Johnstown Chiefs were in need of a breakout game.

First-year coach Jeff Flanagan knew it, and after a meeting with Kris Mayotte, so did the Johnstown Chiefs goaltender.

Mayotte made 28 saves and defenseman R.J. Anderson had a rare hat trick and five points as the Chiefs pounded the South Division-leading South Carolina Stingrays 7-1 at North Charleston Coliseum.

“It’s huge,” Flanagan said of the victory. “The guys really came together. We worked hard and stuck to our plan. I think it’s one of our first games where we played well for 60 minutes.”

The Stingrays scored first, as Rob Ricci beat Mayotte six minutes into the game, but the Johnstown netminder didn’t give up anything else the rest of the day.

Connor Shields tied it with a power-play goal nearly four minutes later on assists by Chris Zarb and Jarrett Konkle.

Mike Bartlett scored an unassisted goal just 36 seconds later to hand the Chiefs the lead and Troy Schwab gave Flanagan’s team its third goal in less than three minutes. Schwab’s fourth of the season, which was assisted by Konkle and Anderson, made it 3-1 12 minutes into the game.

During the intermission Flanagan wanted to make sure that his team, which had played well in spurts during a 3-8-3-0 start to the season, didn’t let up this time.

“It was one of our teaching points,” he said. “We talked about how we’ve had these situations before in the last few games and we kept giving them away. It was important for us to keep our mental focus. Staying on an even keel, we call it. The guys did. They kept doing the simple things to keep them successful.”

Mayotte and Anderson were a large part of that success.

“Mayotte was real good,” Flanagan said. “We had a meeting (Sunday) morning, and we talked about what he thought about the team and his game.”

The talk seemed to work.

“In a couple of situations he made some big saves that kept us in the lead, and the guys really fed off of that,” Flanagan said. “It allowed them to kind of relax and play their game.”

Anderson scored his first goal 21⁄2 minutes into the second period off an assist by Jim McKenzie. Bryan Marshall’s goal 61⁄2 minutes later made it 5-1 and gave Anderson his fourth point of the day. Ryan Menei also assisted on Marshall’s goal.

Anderson made it 6-1 with less than two minutes remaining in the second. Sean Berkstresser and Michael Couch had assists on the play.

The hat trick came three minutes into the third, as Menei and Bartlett set up Anderson’s third goal.

“R.J.’s not what you’d call a real offensive defenseman,” Flanagan said. “He’s very smart and makes simple plays. He’s very good with the first pass. The one goal, he jumped into the play and Berkstresser made a fantastic play out of the corner and he scored.”

Flanagan said that while Anderson got the hat trick, it was due, in large part, to strong team play.

“R.J. was in those positions because we were getting pucks deep,” Flanagan said.