Andy Smith reached 1000 points as the Invicta Dynamos winning league run increased to 14 wins on the bounce at Streatham.

Coach Kevin Parrish had the luxury of a full roster on the ice for the trip to South London as the Dynamos lined-up against a Redskins team also at full strength. The biggest crowd seen at the Streatham Redskins this season, helped by a big Dynamos following were provided with end to end entertainment from start to finish.

Streatham Redskins netminder Will Sanderson made the first impressive save just before the two minute mark when he padded a Juraj Huska shot before preventing Billy Phillips who followed-up with a powerful shot. Nicky Lewis then tested the Redskin netminder from distance, whilst at the other end Mark Lee made his first of many saves from ex-Dynamo forward Callum Best.

Invicta’s pace moving the puck forward was always a threat during the game, and it almost produced the first goal of the night on the fifth minute when Andy Smith skated behind Sanderson’s net and pulled the puck back to Fowler, but Sanderson made another good save from point blank range.

Nicky Lewis ensured the energetic Dynamos fans had something to cheer on 07:31 when he timed a hard but fair hit on Stewart Tait right in front of the travelling faithful. Half a minute later the first penalties were served when Charlie Phillips was penalised for cross checking and Joe Allen for tripping to put a 4-on-4 on the ice.

The Dynamos took advantage of the reduced number of men on the ice on 09:16 as Andy Smith found teammate Callum Fowler who squeezed the puck past Sanderson to give the Dynamos the lead. Andy Smith’s assist in the opening goal of the game gave him the magic 1000 points in only 402 games. The milestone was celebrated with songs of ‘Phenomenon’ and ‘1000 La la la’ by the Dynamos supporters who also waved flags and banners with delight.

The Redskins got the scores back level on 10:54, Steven Fisher’s deflected pass found Jakub Klima, and the ex-Dynamo and well-travelled forward fired the puck past Mark Lee.

On his first return to Streatham, Dynamo’s Michal Oravec was unlucky not to score on 12:20 when he broke through the Redskins defence, only to see his backhanded shot lift over the Sanderson’s goal. Penalties on Redskins Dominic Hopkins (13:44) and Dynamos Frankie Harvey (16:39) were defended well by both teams, with Mark Lee being the busier netminder, saving well from Callum Best again.

On the buzzer to signal the end of the first period, Redskins Jack Tarczycki took it upon himself to skate towards the Dynamos bench and throw an arm over the barrier, giving Billy Phillips the opportunity to return the blows and floor the former Dynamos defender. Match officials William Hewitt and Ryan Fraley penalised Tarczycki with a two minute roughing penalty, Phillips also received a two minute roughing penalty for his troubles along with a further ten minutes for misconduct.

The second period started with a 4-on-4, and shortly before the completion of the Tarczycki/Phillips two minute penalty finishing, Redskins Callum Best was sent to the penalty box for hooking on 21:34. The Dynamos punished Best as they took advantage of the powerplay on 22:27. Frankie Harvey found teammate Juraj Huska on the blue line and the Slovakian forward rifled a slapshot past Sanderson to give the Dynamos a 2-1 lead.

Mark Lee done well to prevent both Jakub Klima and Callum Best from scoring on 23:39 and 23:48 respectively as the Redskins started to pile the pressure on a Dynamos defence that held firm as the likes of Dewey, Phillips and Strawson also contributed to help Lee keep the score down.

Stewart Tait did his Redskin teammates no favours on 25:58 when he was sent to the penalty box to serve two minutes for holding. Once again the Dynamos benefited from a powerplay, Callum Fowler and Frankie Harvey combining to find Juraj Huska on right circle to slam a shot into the back of the net to bring-up the Dynamos third goal.

End-to-end play continued as both teams produced ice hockey that showed why they are challenging for honours this season and it would be the Dynamos who got reward with a further goal on 32.24. Frankie Harvey’s third assist of the night found Juraj Huska who turned the puck to Anthony Leone and the Dynamos captain shot high into the net to give the Dynamos a three goal lead. Juraj Huska’s part in the goal got him his 200^th career point for the Dynamos.

Penalties on Billy Phillips and Nicky Lewis gave Streatham a 5-on-3 advantage near the end of the second period which stemmed in Redskin coach Warren Rost calling a timeout on 39:06. Rost decided to pull Sanderson from the Redskins net and put an extra forward on the ice to make it 6-on-3. The Dynamos three players of Andy Smith, Callum Fowler and Arran Strawson chased the puck well, and the ever reliable Mark Lee stood like a wall in front of the goal.

On 39:34 and after defending the 6-on-3 for 28 seconds, Arran Strawson won the puck from his own defending corner and lifted the puck over all the players and into the empty Redskin net to extend the lead to 5-1 with an extraordinary goal.

The third period continued in similar style to the previous periods as both teams searched for goals with both netminder’s standing firm, in particular Mark Lee who produced a point blank save from Klima before the Redskins finally got a goal back on 49:50. Adam Wood found the hardworking Callum Best, who beat Mark Lee to bring the score back to 5-2 in favour of the away team.

On 52:59 a long pass out of defence by Arran Strawson was missed by Jack Tarczycki which sent Juraj Huska clear and skate up to Sanderson and beat the netminder with ease to bring-up his hat-trick.

The game ended with Mark Lee being awarded man of the match for the Dynamos after saving 45 shots from 47 faced (95.74% save percentage). Joe Johnston received the honours for the home team.

In a nice touch by the Dynamos team, Andy Smith led the team around the rink to take applause for reaching his milestone in a game that had just about everything.

Not many words can described what Andy Smith has achieved by reaching 1000 points but the word ‘Legend’ fits nicely to a player who we can only hope now gets recognition from the EIHA hall of fame.

Pictures supplied by David Trevallion.