The Invicta Dynamos made the long trip to Cardiff and ensured the journey was worthwhile by bringing home maximum points.

Invicta were missing new import Joonas Liimatainen, Grant Baxter and Mark Lee so called-up Brad Gutridge from the Invicta Mustangs whilst Charlie Phillips also made his comeback following a hand injury.

Cardiff netminder Luke Takel was called into action as early as the 31st second as he smothered a pass from Callum Fowler who tried to play in Andy Smith close to goal.

Chris Douglas was soon in the action as he padded away a Jack Randall shot on 2 minutes. Takel would again save well, this time as Andy Smith shoots hard following a great pass by the dangerous Callum Fowler.

The first of many penalties fell to Billy Phillips on 5:09 for elbows and although the Dynamos managed to see out the penalty they would have been disappointed to concede on 07:17 to Cardiff’s Owen Bradshaw who left Chris Douglas no chance after being set-up by Giovanni Raffaelli.

Penalties would then fall to Arran Strawson (slashing) and Harrison Lillis (Roughing) before Cardiff’s Kieran Latchford was penalised for roughing on 15:01 and that penalty was to aid Invicta in getting the scores level on 15:49 as Anthony Leone accepted Juraj Huska assist to score.

The lesson wasn’t learnt by Cardiff as Luke Merrick was penalised for elbows on 18:13 and again Invicta made the powerplay count as Andy Smith scored on 19:02 following good build-up play by Billy Phillips and Juraj Huska.

That goal was to be Andy Smith’s 500th goal for Invicta Dynamos and was celebrated in typical fashion by the passionate travelling Invicta fans.

The 2nd period was to be a busy period for referee James Ions. Cardiff started the 2nd period with 4 men following a 2 minute roughing penalty on Jack Randall on 20:00.

Dynamos once again took advantage of the man difference and take a 3-1 lead on 21:26 thanks to Callum’s Fowler goal and assists by Andy Smith and Anthony Leone.

The Dynamos fans had barely blinked before it was 4-1 curtesy of Nicky Lewis scoring unassisted on 22:07.

Both teams went on to rack-up the penalty points before Anthony Leone drove home the 5th Invicta goal (and 4th from a power play) on 33:53 aided by a Callum Fowler assist.

Leone got his hat-trick and Invicta’s 6th goal on 37:02 as his shot from the left hand side flew to the bottom corner of Takel’s net.

The penalty box got crowded on 37:42 following Jack Randall’s awful hit on Andy Smith. Smith, who was controlling the puck in the Cardiff corner was checked from behind by the rash Randall and the hit resulted in Smith playing no further action in the game.

The incident resulted in Arran Strawson exchanging blow’s with Jack Randall as Strawson rightfully stuck-up for his injured teammate.

Penalties awarded by referee Ions resulted in Randall and Strawson being ejected from the game and 10 minute misconduct charges on Invicta’s Billy Phillips 10 minutes and Anthony Leone as well as Cardiff’s David Sadler.

Nicky Lewis extended the lead on 39:52 following Huska’s pass.

Jonathan Nash pulled a goal back on 40:34 but it would make little difference as Invicta went on to make it 8-2 through Frankie Harvey on 49:24 and 9-2 on 50:42 as Huska’s power shot hit the goal frame and fell behind James Whiting who had replaced Takel in the nets at the start of the 3rd period.

Owen Bradshaw pulled the scores back to 9-3 on 53:32 which again was little consolation as Invicta dominated most of the play.

The argumentative David Sadler got too much for Harrison Lillis on 56:14 as Lillis accepted Sadler’s invite to drop the gloves with Lillis showing he was too strong for Sadler and getting the take down.

In a match that produced 76 penalty minutes for Cardiff and 70 minutes for Invicta, it was the Dynamos who showed good class and skill on the ice with Kevin Parrish’s team now looking to take the good form into Sunday’s game versus Milton Keynes Thunder.

Invicta Dynamos man of the match – Andy Smith