Ferris State top scorer Mayhew seeing game evolve, progress with Bulldogs

 

By Matt Mackinder –

For some, figuring out how to replace goaltender C.J. Motte was going to be Ferris State’s biggest challenge this season.

And while Charles Williams and Darren Smith have shared crease duty in 2015-16, one other issue that has never been a problem was finding offense from Gerald Mayhew.

The 2011 co-Mr. Hockey award winner while at Wyandotte Roosevelt High School (tied with Calumet’s Ben Johnson, a former New Jersey Devils draft pick), Mayhew led the Bulldogs in scoring last season and is at it again this year as Ferris State enters the second half playing .500 hockey to date.

“From a personal standpoint, I think I have played pretty well,” said Mayhew, who turned 23 on New Year’s Eve. “I’ve been getting plenty of chances and sometimes can’t bury the puck, but toward the latter half of the first half, I started putting the puck in the net. Just need to keep shooting. For the team, we split every weekend, we couldn’t close out a weekend, and if we want to jump up the rankings, we need to close out a weekend with a sweep.”

Now a junior in Big Rapids, Mayhew knew what his role would be this year and has done nothing but embrace it.

“Coming into the season being a veteran, I was hoping to help my team win by putting up points,” Mayhew said. “Right now, I’m playing well and I have worked very hard to try and put up points every game. There were games I was off my game, so I need to show up every game and produce points along with other things to help the team win.

“For the second half, we have to start periods and end periods way better than we have in the first half. When we have a lead, we have to keep it and not let the opponent score in the first two and last two minutes of a period. We also have to stay out of the box. We have been taking too many penalties and it’s hard to win games when you’re constantly in the box.”

 

After graduating from Roosevelt, Mayhew skated two seasons with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, compiling 36 goals and 77 points in 117 games in the top junior league in the United States.

Mayhew said it was while he was playing in Cedar Rapids that he first started to realize that playing NCAA Division I hockey could be a distinct possibility.

“To be honest, I didn’t think I had the skill level to play D-I hockey,” admitted Mayhew. “It was always my dream to play. By my senior year of high school, I had a couple teams talking to me and that’s when I thought that if I keep working hard, I could maybe play D-I one day. Playing at Cedar Rapids in the USHL really helped me as well. Coach Mark Carlson is a great coach and develops his players very well and gets them ready for the next level.”

And when the chance to go back to his home state and play in the WCHA, Mayhew didn’t give it a second thought.

“What caught my eye about Ferris was the coaches and players,” Mayhew said. “They like to win here and do not take losing very well. That’s what I wanted to do is win hockey games and win championships. It also seemed like the coaches really liked me and wanted me to be a big part of their team, so that’s the main reason I picked Ferris State.

“It wasn’t very important to me to come back to Michigan, I just wanted to play D-I hockey, but when a team from Michigan wants you to play for their team, it is definitely hard to say no. A pro for staying in Michigan is my family gets to come to a lot of games and it’s always nice having your family behind you at games.”

As a freshman, Mayhew tallied eight goals among 20 points and then leaped to the top of the team scoring chart in 2014-15 with Matt Robertson.

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Tasting success as it is, Mayhew said he started playing hockey as a youth in Wyandotte to take after his cousins. He played for the Canton Crush in his early days as well.

“They all played and fell in love with it ever since,” said Mayhew. “We had a very good team (with the Crush) and some kids are even playing D-I hockey as well. I played a lot of sports in high school, such as tennis and baseball, but hockey was my passion.”

A marketing major at Ferris State, Mayhew is planning to utilize his degree as a fallback option.

“I’m not sure what I want to do with a marketing degree yet,” Mayhew said. “I want to stay in the game of hockey as long as I can. Maybe I’ll be a coach or a scout in the future, you never know. I’m hoping that I am able to play hockey still in 5-10 years. It’s something I’ve worked on for a long time.

“I’ve put my whole life into hockey and hopefully one day, it all will work out for me.”