The Invicta Dynamos suffered their second defeat of the season to the Bracknell Bees, this time it was on the road at the Hive arena.
Invicta included new netminder Conor Morris who backed-up Adam Long whilst the Mos had to do without the services of young duo Owen Dell and Jake Stedman but were able to recall Callum Best. For Best and Matt Foord it was a return to their former club, with Foord having served the Bees for a number of years.
The Bees only took 40 seconds to open the nights scoring – Ivan Antonov turning Arran Strawson and providing Joshua Smith with a perfect opportunity to beat Adam Long for 1-0 to the hosts. The Mos however didn’t let their heads drop and a powerplay was presented to them in the 4th minute through Joe Baird’s interference on Grant Bartlett. The extra man advantage was seized upon by Invicta and Martin Susters drilled past Dean Skinns for 1-1 on 5:22 with assists going to Callum Bartlett and Ondrej Zosiak.
Skinns then produced a save to deny Zoisak who had won possession of the puck and darted forward looking to edge the Mos in-front, but as Skinns made the save he also fell victim to the recent delay of game rule change and it presented the Mos with another powerplay. The extra man didn’t last long for the Kent side this time with Edmund Piacka guilty of a high stick 40 seconds into the Mos powerplay leaving a 4 on 4 on the ice. As soon as the Bees returned to full strength they went edged ahead – Roman Malinik drilling past Long on 12:49 for 2-1, Ivan Antonov and Shaun Thompson the providers. With the period coming to a close Grant Bartlett led a breakaway and when he cut a pass across the goalmouth it took a good save from Skinss to deny Cameron Bartlett.
The second period was only a couple of minutes old when Bracknell extended their lead to 3-1 – Shaun Thompson on the rebound converting beyond Long, Anotonov claiming his third assist of the evening. Just before the midway mark of the game Matt Foord fed Grant Bartlett the puck with an inch perfect pass through the middle but unfortunately Bartlett screwed his shot wide of the post. Both teams were cancelling each other out in the period but another chance fell the way of Cameron Bartlett in the 39th minute following good work by Edmund Piacka but yet again Skinns was down low and early to make the save before the buzzer.
The final period was only a minute hold when Edmund Piacka’s hold on Joe Baird saw the Bees man try to retaliate and result in both players sitting in the penalty box for two minutes each. Only 30 seconds later the Bees were down to three skaters with Ryan Sutton called for holding on Arran Strawson but the Mos failed to make the extra man count. The turning point of the period came in the 45th minute – with Scott Spearing and Brandon Miles skating off for a line change an exchange of words led to the Dynamos hard man dropping his gloves but Spearing declining to dance so Miles ended-up sitting alone in the penalty box on a 2+2 roughing punishment. On the 46th minute mark the Bess went 4-1 ahead – Roman Malinik with a thundering shot beyond Long, assisted by Thompson and Smith. Two minutes later it was 5-1 to the hosts with Josh Smith grabbed his second of the night and Antonov’s fourth assist. Adam Long then went on to pull out a top save from the broken free Antonov but despite a lot of effort the Dynamos failed to crawl back a further goal.
Man of the match for the Dynamos went to Matt Foord whilst for the host Roman Malinik claimed the honours for his two goals.
Points
Bees: Knaggs 0+1, Doughty 0+1, Thompson 1+2, Antonov 0+4, Smith 2+2, Malinik 2+0
Dynamos: C. Bartlett 0+1, Zosiak 0+1, Susters 1+0
Netminders
Dean Skinns save percentage – 95.24% (21 shots/1 goal)
Adam Long save percentage – 86.84% (38 shots/5 goals)
PIMS
Bees – 14 minutes (inc. Baird 6 mins)
Dynamos – 12 minutes (inc. Piacka 6 mins)
Picture supplied by Nicola Allen.