Invicta Dynamos fan Lee Allen looks back at the past week and the joys of doing parkruns in his exclusive blog.
Invicta Dynamos progress on their mission, as the supporters running team battle the conditions.
Saturday 21th November
As per my normal Saturday tradition, its 5k park running with my fellow Invicta Dynamo supporters and good friends at Leybourne Lakes this morning – but in some challenging conditions – rain, sleet, wind, puddles, mud and only 1 degrees in temperature.
We all battled through and it even brought personal best times for Nicola Allen and the combined team of Brendon Davey and his dog, Bear.
I’m not sure Diane Davey (our match-day programme seller) was impressed when Bear and Brendon finished the bath and the colour of the water changed almost immediately….
The programme interviews I’m doing are still going well, this weekend sees Ondrej Zosiak being the feature and I’ve got all three Wootton brothers to come soon along with Josh Condren and Damien Welch to name but a few.
This evening brings the visit of the Cardiff Devils who held us to a draw not so long ago. On this occasion however the Invicta Dynamos sailed to a comfortable 6-1 win.
Steve Osman opened the scoring within 3 minutes. Cardiff were defending a five minute powerplay later in the period due to Luke Merrick’s low check which saw a knee injury to Joshua Condren (who was helped off the ice), Merrick was rightfully thrown out of the game.
With a few minutes of the first period remaining Jacob Ranson and Elliott Dewey assisted Eriks Ozollapa who doubled the lead to two – nil.
The next goal had to wait until 29.09 on the clock –Joshua Condren having recovered from his blow to the knee roofing a shot past netminder Michael Crisp for 3-0. Five minutes later the Devils scored what would be their only consolation goal through Thomas Stuart-Dant for 3-1.
I was on Twitter duty today (I only do the home ones when Paul Bennett is either filming or working) and just as I was tweeting about the Cardiff goal the Dynamos scored virtually straight away, Jacob Ranson teeing up Bailey Wootton to finish past Crisp for 4-1….the joys of tweeting updates meant I missed the goal, it’s happened many times on the away games I cover too, thankfully Paul and his brother provide excellent highlights coverage so I will get to see the goal I missed during the week. Ranson would again claim a further assist, finding Eriks Ozollapa on the left who cut a pass across the crease for Steve Osman to make it 5-1 on 37.04.
The third period was very heated. Eriks Ozollapa checked Stuart-Dant into the plexi from behind (I couldn’t see this from my viewing point), so Stuart-Dant responded by chopping Ozollapa down from behind and tried his hardest to start a fight. Ozollapa was given a 2+10 penalty – and sat with me and Nicola for the rest of the game!
Stuart-Dant was soon involved in some heat again, Jack Lee this time taking on Stuart-Dant. Jack threw the most blows and although the Cardiff man landed on top when they hit the ice I’m sure the jury would award the win to the Dynamos corner. Back on playing matters, Ondrej Zosiak hit the puck in the top far corner of Crisp’s net late in the game to finish the scoring for the night and give Invicta a 6-1 victory.
Sunday 22nd November
An 8.75 mile run in the morning sets me up ready for this evenings clash – against Chelmsford.
This could be the hardest test for Invicta to date this season. Not only did we get thrashed on our last visit, Chelmsford have won every game at home this season too.
The journey is a mare, stuck in traffic at Dartford for 25 minutes is very painful, but me being an early bird I manage to be the first person in the away end apart from the dads of a few players (I sat next to Josh Condren’s dad tonight).
Once again it’s Twitter duty – and no goals were missed this time. Part of the pre-match talk was the potential showdown of the King brothers in both nets but with the injured Euan King not icing for Chelmsford it meant Ben Clements took responsibility between the pipes.
A fast paced start by both teams in the opening minutes led to Invicta hitting the Chelmsford goal frame within the third minute. At the other end of the pad, Damien King had to be on guard to deny Juraj Huska. Chelmsford rocked-up 16 penalty minutes in the first period, mainly down to Grant Bartlett who was responsible for 12 of them.
Eriks Ozollapa was in the clear with 40 seconds of the period remaining but Clements pulled out a brilliant save, then on 19.57 Invicta put the puck in the net on only for referee Rene Ross to disallow it due to the goal frame coming away from the line.
The only disappointment from a good first period for the Dynamos was an early injury to Bailey Wootton who played no further part in the game.
During the second period at 23.44, Ben Clements produced a glove save to deny Ozollapa again, but on 27.31 Ozollapa robbed an opponent and hit a screamer past Clements to give the Dynamos a one goal lead.
The goal put Chelmsford into a second gear as they started to push the Mo’s back into their own zone, which eventually lead to a Chelmsford goal on 37.25 from Matt France assisted by Alex Staples and James Ayling.
Early third period chances fell to Chelmsford’s James Ayling and Juraj Huska but King denied them on both occasions. On 47.30 Invicta forward Josh Condren won the puck and played a pass to Conor Redmond but the incoming shot was saved by Clements.
With 48.25 on the clock, Cameron Bartlett skittled through the Dynamos defence and played a cutting pass across the goal for Anthony Leone to tap home to give the home side a 2-1 lead. A couple of minutes later Juraj Huska couldn’t miss when Danny Hammond cut the puck across the Dynamos goal for Huska to make it 3-1.
Invicta coach Kevin Parrish called a timeout on straight after the goal and whatever he said to his team paid off with Josh Condren stroking the puck past Clements on 49.50 for his second goal in two days, Jacob Ranson claiming the assist.
Treatment was called for Josh Condren shortly afterwards with the young forward falling victim to a shoulder injury and playing no further part.
Invicta have the puck in the Chelmsford goal again on 54.25 – but after the referee’s whistle and ongoing protests by Arran Strawson led to him getting a ten minute misconduct penalty. Not long afterwards, Steve Osman was found in space by Ondrej Zosiak and he hit the equaliser on 55.03 to make it 3-3, Conor Redmond claiming the second assist.
Chelmsford thought they had sneaked victory near the end of the game but the goal was washed out due to the puck hitting King’s helmet from an initial shot before the rebound was hit past him.
Damien King end-up facing 44 shots giving him a 93.18% save percentage and Ben Clements in the Chelmsford goal faced two more shots giving him a 93.48% save percentage.
The journey home was much easier and always seems quicker on the back of a good result. I will enjoy writing this match report up.