In a must win game against the Chelmsford Chieftains, it was the Invicta Dynamos who were on the wrong end of a 6-1 defeat in Essex on Sunday night.
The Dynamos were missing the suspended Billy Phillips, whilst Grant Baxter and Aaron Craft were not part of the roster. Mark Lee returned to guard the nets, whilst Elliott Dewey and Charlie Phillips also made returns having missed the victory over the Oxford Stars the previous night.
The first period was only 34 seconds old when Chelmsford’s Darren Brown was penalised for boarding on Charlie Phillips, Arran Strawson also received a cross checking penalty for stepping into the incident. With both teams down to 4 skaters on the ice, the Chieftains won the resulting face-off and Martin Piecha beat his marker to put the Chieftains ahead after only 41 seconds.
The Chieftains extended the lead to two-nil after six minutes with a scrambled goal from James Ayling, with Bailey Chittock claiming the assist.
Not long after, Charlie Phillips was in Jurijs Solovjovs’ bad books, with Solovjovs handing Phillips a 2+10 minute penalty for checking to the head and misconduct.
Just over a minute later, the Dynamos were down to three skaters on the ice with Arran Strawson penalised for cross checking. The Dynamos held firm to see out the penalties and returned to full strength with the Chieftains going down to three skaters following penalties on Lukas Zatopek and Danny Hammond, but despite the two man advantage the Dynamos could not grab a goal back.
With 17 minutes gone, Chieftains forward Matt Turner fired a shot at Mark Lee’s goal with the puck hitting the underside of the bar and dropping straight down, referee Solovjovs had no doubt it crossed the line and awarded the goal despite protests from the Dynamos players.
The Dynamos started the second period knowing they had to get the first goal of the period and they did that when Callum Fowler forced in the second rebound after Ben Clements had previously kept out shots from Charlie Phillips and Andy Smith.
At 3-1, the Dynamos still had hope of getting a few goals back to draw level but that task was made harder when ex-Dynamo Danny Hammond put the Chieftains even further ahead on 24:59.
Dynamos were down to four skaters at the time following a penalty on Charlie Phillips for tripping and after Piecha had found Hammond at an angle, his shot from the left slipped past Mark Lee to pretty much sum up what would be a hard night for the Dynamos.
Callum Fowler almost grabbed a goal back before the end of the second period, but after controlling a high puck and dancing through the Chieftains defence his shot cannoned off the cross bar with Clements beaten.
The Chieftains extended the lead to 5-1 on 44 minutes. Darren Brown won the puck from Charlie Phillips behind Mark Lee’s goal and passed the puck to Turner who fired home with Lee given no chance to keep the puck out.
Charlie Phillips was ejected from the game on 53:01 after a foul on Ryan Giles. The game was briefly paused following the ejection of Phillips as tempers were raised off the ice with it taking several minutes to calm matters. When play restarted, James Ayling added to Dynamos’ misery making it 6-1 on 53:09.
Callum Fowler picked-up the man of the match award for the Dynamos, and Ben Clements for the Chieftains.
The Dynamos return to action on Saturday 31st January against Milton Keynes Thunder in Gillingham (5:15pm face-off).