After defeating the Cardiff Devils on Saturday, Invicta Dynamos finished the weekend with a well-earned point at title favourites Chelmsford on Sunday evening.

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 in meant Ben Clements took responsibility between the pipes.

Also missing from the Chelmsford roster was Darren Brown, Lukas Zatopek and Ollie Baldock whilst Invicta called on the same roster from the previous night meaning no Nicky Lewis and Adam McNicoll again due to injury.

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 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 has 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.

Invicta’s Conor Redmond received the man of the match beers and for Chelmsford, Alex Staples took the honours.

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.

Main picture supplied by David Trevallion.