The Invicta Dynamos made it 13 straight league wins and went three points clear at the top of the league by beating London Raiders 9-0 on Sunday night.

In what was a largely one way game, the Dynamos did a professional job on the visitors to the Silver Blades Ice Rink in Gillingham to keep their unbeaten run going and cement top spot at the summit of the NIHL South.

The Dynamos went into the game without the services of import Juraj Huska who was suffering with an illness, but it mattered not on an evening where the side demolished the opposition.

It took little over a minute for the Dynamos to open the scoring with skipper Anthony Leone poking the puck past Raiders netminder George Alley.

The crowd were reminded of the powerful force of the Phillips brothers in an entertaining first period with the younger Charlie putting in some big hits, whilst Billy stepped up off the blue line to fire home after 19 minutes.

Charlie wasn’t to be denied though and got himself on the scoresheet forcing the puck home four minutes into the second period, with the visitors disputing whether it was a legal goal.

After much deliberation it was given and Andy Smith was given his first assist of the night to take him on to 996 career points for the Dynamos.

It took until the 32nd minute for the Dynamos to add their fourth with Leone doing what he does best and Smith made his tally move to 997 in the last minute of the period as he rounded off a great move from Callum Fowler.

The final period saw the Dynamos step through the gears and dominate their opponents with the crowd beginning to believe the impossible might be on as Smith closed in on the 1,000 point mark.

Making full advantage of a powerplay, it took the Dynamos just two minutes of the final period to make it 6-0 with Ashley Jackson in the right place to roof the puck high beyond Alley.

Leone completed his hat-trick in the 51st minute much to the delight of the home support after impressive build up play involving Billy Phillips.

Then it was the Andy Smith show…

With 54.07 on the clock, Smith turned provider for Callum Fowler to make it 998 and that’s when the butterflies and nerves began to build.

Just over two minutes later and Smith made it 999 as Fowler returned the compliment, dancing down the ice before looking for his strike partner to tuck the puck home.

Knowing there was just three minutes left, the Dynamos changed tactics, allowing Smith to ice on all three lines, giving him every opportunity to bring up the momentous achievement, but London Raiders weren’t playing ball and elected to man mark the Dynamos hotshot.

Every half chance came his way was smothered and he wasn’t given the room to find the space and score.

A timeout from Kevin Parrish to reassess tactics was called with just over 90 seconds left and with eight seconds left a Raiders goal was washed out with the goal knocked off its’ moorings.

Those final eight seconds proved to be agonising as the Dynamos tried to engineer a goal for Smith. They wanted to leave the forward off the ice as the puck was dropped behind their own blue line, giving Smith the chance to jump out of the door and break away, but the officials wouldn’t allow it and in the end the clock would down without incident.

So it will be a long week for Smith who will go to Streatham next Saturday looking for the 1,000 point landmark whilst the Dynamos will look to make it another four point weekend with Bracknell Hornets coming to Gillingham next Sunday evening.

To listen to our exclusive interviews with Kevin Parrish and Danny Terry after the game, click here: