The Invicta Dynamos fell to a big defeat on the road to Basingstoke Bison on Saturday evening with the home side looking to secure the league title in the final weekend of the regular season.
Coach Kevin Parrish was without the services of D-man Connolly and forward Stedman but was able to recall netminder John Dibble as back-up netminder.
The Mos actually started the game well as 16-year-old George Hoang made home netminder Skinns work to save his early shot. Damien King was then called into action by denying Josh Smith before the Mos were on the penalty kill after Ashley Jackson was penalised for hooking on 4 minutes.
The Mos rallied hard together and restricted the Bison to only 2 shots on the powerplay to leave the sides still tied at 0-0. The kill switched over moments later with Antonov called for high sticks and the Mos almost crept ahead with Steve Osman picking out Mason Webster at the far post but Skinns did well to recover the puck.
A routine save by King then stopped Dan Scott from putting Bison ahead and when possession changed to the other end of the ice Louis Colvin squared to Hoang who hit a first-time shot which Skinns saved.
Bison finally made the breakthrough on 14:07 – Karpov and Smith combining to find Aaron Connolly who cut in from the right to beat King for 1-0. Bison then doubled the lead in the 17th minute – Daniel Davies getting his first goal of the evening after latching onto Antonov’s pass.
The 2nd period killed the game for the Mos. It didn’t get off to the best of starts when the Bison went 3-0 up on 20:24 – Connolly roofing past King’s left shoulder, assists coming from Baird and Smith. A minute later Davies grabbed his second of the night and Bison’s 4th which called for Kevin Parrish to call a timeout. The talk did little to change the luck however as the Bison continued to attack at the Mos and were soon 5-0 up – Ryan Sutton hitting the net. Daniel Davies completed his hat-trick in the 25th minute are feeding off a Karpov pass and dispatching beyond King for Bison’s 6th goal.
King then denied Davies his 4th goal before the Mos ruined Bison’s hope of a shutout. Mason Webster teed-up Steve Osman nicely to stroke the puck past Skinns for 6-1 on 30:42. That was pretty much as good as it good for the Mos that period with the Bison going 7-1 ahead on 31:46 through Ivan Antonov. Then just before the end of the 2nd period the scoreboard was displaying 8-1 – Kurt Reynolds scoring.
Invicta changed netminders for the final period with John Dibble replacing King. Remarkably the Bison hit the post 3 times early in the period but the Mos had a few chances too through Zosiak and Cesky which were both saved. The Mos defended Dibble’s net well until the 57th minute when Karpov notched a goal for 9-1 and with the game closing out the Bison hit the final goal of the game on 59:58 through Karpov again for 10-1.
Man of the match for the Dynamos went to Mason Webster whilst Daniel Davies received the honours for the home side after bagging a hat-trick and 3 assists.