The Invicta Dynamos put up a brave fight in Basingstoke during their last away game of 2018 but ended up going home without a point or two.
With Ryan Giles and Joe Allen both unavailable the Dynamos took to the ice with just 13 skaters and started the better of the two teams. Ondrej Zosiak gave the Bison a warning when he shot just wide of the mark inside the first minute of the game. Not long afterwards Louis Colvin broke clear and looked certain to score until Chris Cooke flung himself on the ground to make a superb diving tackle. The early pressure soon paid off for the Dynamos – Zosiak seeing a shot padded away by netminder Weller-Evans but the rebound fell to Jake Stedman who quickly switched possession to Owen Dell to fire into the back of the net on 2:37 for 1-0 to the Kent side.
Dell was again in the thick on 4:14 when Bison’ import Michal Klejna checked him to the head – putting the Mos on a powerplay and Klejna sitting a 2+10 penalty. The Bison soon killed the two minute powerplay without conceding and then started to apply pressure on the Dynamos with Oscar Evans calling Conor Morris into action with a good save on 7:49. The Bison drew the score level to 1-1 on 8:40 – Tommy Ralph feeding George Norcliffe to dispatch beyond Morris. Mos’ netminder Morris was then kept busy, denying Ralph on 9:38 and then pulling out a double save to deny Norcliffe after 10 minutes of play.
Callum Best found himself in a great position to score on 14:30 but elected to pass instead and an opportunity for the Mos to go ahead once more soon disappeared. The Bison then took the lead on 16:42 – Morris making a couple of saves before Paul Petts finally beat him for 2-1.
The second period had Russell Cowley and George Norcliffe both waste chances for the Bison with the Mos taking a while to get going – but when they did they soon drew level. Anthony Leone and Ondrej Zosiak teaming-up to assist for Owen Dell to strike his second goal of the evening to put the score to 2-2 on 28:42. Then – on 30:12, Lewis English played a delightful pass to Brendon Miles who skated down towards the Bison goal and clinically beat Weller-Evans for 3-2 to the Dynamos! The Bison immediately called a timeout to try and regroup.
The Mos had Morris to thank after the timeout with saves from Norcliffe and Sampford whilst at the opposite end of the ice pad Weller-Evans twice denied Miles on separate occasions to prevent the Mos from stretching their lead.
The Dynamos gave away their first penalty of the game on 41:50 when Jake Stedman was called for slashing – and it took only 10 seconds of the resulting powerplay for the Bison to level the scoreline to 3-3 with Klejna picking-up a pass from Jones and striking past Morris. Poor marking then let Kjena in for his second goal on 45:53 and putting the Bison ahead once more at 4-3. The Dynamos legs were starting to tire and when Ryan Morgan was adjudged to have hooked an opponent on 47:46 the Kent side were again defending another powerplay – and although they successfully killed the two minutes they conceding 10 seconds later on 49:50 with Richard Bordowski making it 5-3 to the hosts. Weller-Evans went on to deny both Arran Strawson and Lewis English but despite a good effort the Dynamos ended-up defeated.
Referee: Brooks
Points:
Bison: A. Jones 0+1, R. Bordowski 1+0, T. Ralph 0+1, G. Norcliffe 1+0, P. Petts 1+0, A. Tait 0+2, M. Kjena 2+0, A. Sampford 0+1, O. Evans 0+2
Dynamos: L. English 0+1, O. Zosiak 0+1, J. Stedman 0+1, B. Miles 1+0, O. Dell 2+0, A. Leone 0+1
Netminders:
- Weller-Evans save percentage – 81.25% (16 shots/3 goals)
- Morris save percentage – 89.58% (48 shots/5 goals)
PIMS:
Bison – 12
Dynamos – 6
Man of the match:
Bison – M. Kjena
Dynamos – O. Dell
Picture supplied by Nicola Allen.