Yesterdays DDN Article (Jeffrey) Arch: Mahfouz sets tone as Demonz pursue hockey title By Tom Archdeacon - columnist While you can’t yet say how the story will play out in the fifth and deciding game of the Federal Hockey League championship series Saturday night in Danbury, Conn., one part of the script is set in stone. As soon as Whaler fans see the bearded visage of Dayton Demonz right winger Ahmed Mahfouz, from the very moment the star of the Dayton team and the MVP of the league skates onto the ice at Danbury Arena for warm-ups, the heckling, catcalls and taunts will begin. “I can’t wait for Game 5, I know those fans — especially that section that’s always right behind our bench — are gonna have some good ones for me,” Mahfouz said with a grin. “From the moment they see me, they’re chirping.” They get on the 25-year-old for the way he plays, the way he looks and even because of his heritage and Arab name. Mahfouz isn’t just the most celebrated player on the Dayton roster, he is, in the words of Demonz coach Trevor Karasiewicz, “the best player in the league.” Mahfouz led the FHL in points during the regular season (96 on 42 goals and 54 assists) even though he played in 10 or 11 fewer games than most of the other top 10 scorers, and he now leads the playoffs in points (7 goals, eight assists). In what’s also an anomaly for such a prolific scorer, he’s second in the league in penalty minutes this season (190 in 45 games). Mahfouz said Danbury fans like to needle him that he’s “a crybaby,” but Karasiewicz explains it differently: “He’s just a chippy guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.” That was never more evident than during a game in Danbury last season when one Whaler fan — as he has done before and since — took the jeering to a nasty level. Mahfouz’s parents came from Lebanon when they were youngsters and settled in Ottawa, Ontario, where they ran a store and Ahmed’s dad developed the love for hockey that he passed on to his boy. That part of the story didn’t matter to the mouthy Danbury guy standing directly behind the glass near the penalty box one game last year. “My name and all, it’s an easy mark and … aaahh … he kept calling me a terrorist,” Mahfouz said quietly. “That night, for some reason, it just got the best of me. I gave him three chances and after the third one I just looked at him through the glass and said, ‘You say that once more and I’m coming through the door.’ “I guess he didn’t believe me. He said it again and the handle (to the penalty box door leading to the stands) actually opened. I was like ‘uh oh’ and the next thing I know, we’re face to face. I asked him to say it to me in front of my face without the glass between us, but he just stayed silent.” Mahfouz returned to the penalty box — he would be suspended two games for his actions — and said some fans approached him later to say they would have done the same thing. Even so, that has forever made him a target of Danbury fans. “You get ticked off and frustrated but the only way to really shut them up is to put the puck in the back of the net,” he said. And no one in FHL history does that better. Having played four seasons in the league, he is the FHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. A true leader Mahfouz started growing his beard — which now matches the more famed facial shrubbery of other sports guys like the L.A. Dodgers’ Brian Wilson, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Brett Keisel and the Houston Rockets’ James Harden — as an afterthought last season. “I started last year on a pretty hot streak and I didn’t shave and then things just kept going,” he said. While he said his mom and other family members wanted him “to get rid of it as soon as the season was over,” he said he thinks his girlfriend likes it. Back home in Canada last summer he did shave the beard. “It does get hot in there,” he laughed. “And after half a year covered up, I think you do have to let your face breathe once in a while.” But he started to grow it back when it became evident he would return to Dayton this season. And that point was made clear the moment Karasiewicz — a veteran player in his first year as a head coach — took over the Dayton team for which he had played at the end of last season. “He’s the first player I went after when I became head coach,” Karasiewicz said. “Me and him, we’re buddies. We played together here last season and I’d played against him before that.” Two years ago, when Karasiewicz was with the New Jersey franchise in the FHL, Mahfouz was in his second season with the Akwesasne (Ontario) Warriors, another FHL team no longer in the league. In Mahfouz’s first season with the Warriors — after three seasons of junior hockey in Canada — he was named the FHL Rookie of the Year and Akwesasne won the league title. “He has become the best player in the league and to have him going for you is like having Wayne Gretzky going for you,” Karasiewicz said. “After that, the other guys follow suit.” Although the Demonz have several young players this season, they rose to the cause and dispatched Danville in three semifinal playoff games before matching up with Danbury, the team that swept Dayton for the crown last season. While the Whalers had a week off to await the Danville-Dayton winner, the Demonz would end up playing five games in six days. Whether tiredness affected their play, they don’t say, but there’s no debate that Dayton spent a lot more time in the penalty box in Danbury than did the Whalers. The Demonz lost the first two games by one goal, and on the 12-hour bus ride home, Karasiewicz put one thought in his players’ heads: “Do you want to see them celebrating on your home ice?” ‘All-out battle’ The Demonz won the next two games at Hara Arena. With the series now tied, they finished practice Thursday at the South Metro Sports facility on Success Lane in Centerville and then loaded up for the long ride back to Danbury that would begin a few hours later. “I bring along a pillow and a blanket and a little foam mat and I put it underneath the seats and get as much sleep as I can,” Mahfouz said. “You just want to be as rested as possible for Saturday’s game because it’s gonna be an all-out battle. Everybody will be hitting everybody, just working as hard as they can. “I think I feel the same as the other guys in our dressing room, we hate each and every single one of their guys. We’ve played them so many times and it’s always a battle. There have been a lot of cheap shots, a lot of chirping back and forth and we feel we owe them for last year. “We want to bring that title back to Dayton. It’s been a blast here this year. I really like the place.” He wasn’t just talking about the hockey or the town. He met his girlfriend — Taylor Gilliam — here two seasons ago. “She’s from Lebanon, too,” he said matter-of-factly and then a big smile appeared in the middle of that bushy face. “Oh yeah, she’s from Lebanon. “Right down the road in Lebanon, Ohio.”
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:17:35 +0000
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