The Invicta Dynamos all but qualified for the NIHL Southern Cup semi-finals despite losing 5-1 to Chelmsford Chieftains on Sunday night.
Kevin Parrish’s side have all but marched through to the last four of the competition virtue of the fact they beat London Raiders 7-4 earlier in the season and then followed that up with a gritty 4-4 draw away on Saturday evening.
Going into the Chelmsford game on Sunday, the Dynamos knew they were going into battle with the early season in form team with both clubs guaranteed of progressing, so it was encouraging to see that both teams were more than up for the challenge.
The Dynamos took to the ice without the injured Adam McNicoll and Josh Condren, whilst two way signing Haydn Wootton was missing due to commitments with the Guildford Under 18s.
After Mark McGill’s departure earlier in the week, Steve Nightingale was handed the netminder’s duties and he must have known he was going to be in for a busy night ahead.
Both sides started on the front foot and the game was played at a frenetic pace for the opening ten minutes without the scoreline being troubled.
Nightingale was called into action time after time, but showed he was up for the challenge, beating shots away, whilst at the other end the Dynamos looked for the opening goal.
It finally came in the 13th minute, but went the way of the Chieftains as Alexander Staples sent a shot in from the blue line and somehow it trickled past Nightingale and into the back of the net.
Barely two minutes later and it was 2-0 when former Dynamo Juraj Huska as fired in from close range with Nightingale unable to prevent the barrage of shots coming his way.
It took until the 26th minute of the game for the third goal to come and it was Ross Brears that grabbed it for the Essex side.
Nightingale did extremely well to deny former Dynamos skipper Anthony Leone moments later with the forward breaking free, but it was to be 4-0 before the end of the second period.
With the Dynamos penalised for having too many men on the ice, the Chieftains made full use of their numerical advantage with Leone scoring the powerplay goal.
At 4-0 going into the final period, the home support began to fear the worst, but Jacob Ranson clawed the Dynamos back into the game in the 50th minute as he worked some magic with Eriks Ozollapa before firing backhanded past Ben Clements.
The game was finally put to bed in the 53rd minute with Huska grabbing his second of the night to make it 5-1 to the visitors.
In the end it mattered not really, but the Dynamos will take some heart from the fact that they lived with a very powerful Chelmsford side for large parts of the game.
With the Raiders now needing to beat Chelmsford in the final group game in January, Dynamos fans will be quietly confident of making it through to the last four.
The Dynamos now have a whole week to prepare for their next game with early league leaders Streatham Redskins coming to Gillingham on Sunday 25th for what should be a great NIHL South clash.
To listen to our exclusive interviews with Kevin Parrish and Damien Welch from after the game, click here:
https://audioboom.com/boos/3707071-damien-welch-on-returning-to-the-invicta-dynamos