The Invicta Dynamos crashed to a disappointing 6-0 defeat against the Milton Keynes Thunder on Saturday night.
The Mos were without Ryan Giles, Arran Strawson, Callum Best and Harrison Lillis whilst Luke Thirkettle was icing for the Mustangs. The Mos did however welcome back defenceman Andy Munroe.
It was the Mos who created the first opportunity of the game when on 32 seconds Oskars Ancitis skated down the right flank and cut back a pass to Louis Colvin who couldn’t get enough on the puck to divert it beyond netminder Jordan Lawday. The Mos were on a penalty kill on 1:52 with Anthony Leone sitting two penalty minutes for slashing and his teammates successfully shutting out the Thunder during that time. The Mos were defending a further penalty on 5:29 with Lewis English penalised 2 minutes for a tripping offence. Once the Mos returned to full strength they were soon on their own powerplay with Thunder’s Hallden Barnes-Garner slashing at Lewis English in the 8th minute and although Louis Colvin managed to get a shot on the Thunder’ net it was the home side who would score on the shorthand for 1-0 – Tomas Rubes striking on 9:22 assisted by Greg Randall.
The Mos started to step-up the pace and on 12:24 when Ondrej Zosiak carried the puck from defence to attack and looked to close-in on the Thunder’ net before Randall tripped him to put the Mos on another powerplay. With the extra man on the ice Mos’ Matt Foord and Anthony Leone link-up with Mos’ captain Leone shooting at Lawday who saved. Seconds later Leone hit the post just before the Thunder returned to full strength. A chance then fell the way of the Mos again on 14:35 when Jake Stedman dinked the puck across the goalmouth for Lewis English to get a tip on it but once again Lawday was equal to the shot. The netminder once again denied Anthony Leone on 16:29 and Lewis English on 17 minutes. Having not taken their chances the Mos were punished on 19:05 when the Thunder went 2-0 up – the puck falling to Tom Mboya who made no mistake dispatching beyond Conor Morris assisted by Rio Grinell-Parke and Alex Whyte.
Early in the second period Ryan Morgan brought the puck forward with the end result seeing Ancitis fire an unsuccessful attempt saved on Lawday. The Thunder missed a great opportunity to increase their lead on 24:15 when Morris saved from Barnes-Garner and Rubes missing the rebound by firing over the bar. It was soon 3-0 however when on 26:42 Rio Grinell-Parke latched onto a mistake to score unassisted. There were protests from Morris that the puck didn’t fall into the net but referee Hewitt was having nothing of it.
The Mos were now very second best with Logan Prince hitting the post in the 29th minute and Morris saving from Jamie Line on 30:10. A powerplay fell the way of the home side on 33:59 with Brandon Miles sitting a slashing penalty but this time the Mos kept any danger away from Morris. At the close of the period a hit by Ondrej Zosiak on Rio Grinnell-Parke ended with players bunching and arguing on the buzzer the end result seeing Zosiak receiving a 2+2+10 for attempted spearing on 40:00. Joining Zosiak would be teammate Brandon Miles and opponent Rio Grinell-Parke who both got 2 minutes for slashing.
During the start of the third period the Dynamos successfully defended the 4 minutes powerplay and returned to full strength but were again a man down when on 45:36 Lewis English was penalised for tripping. A rare Mos attack during the period was on the shorthand through Brandon Miles who knocked the puck back for Matt Foord to shoot first time with Lawday once again showing good form to keep the Mos on a blank. Despite having a 5 on 3 powerplay when Tom Mboya and Ross Bowers were penalised on 49:51 and 51:02 the Mos failed to score – although the Thunder did notch a goal when back to 4 skaters with Tomas Rubes scoring on 52:58 unassisted. A further unassisted goal by the Thunder came on 57:01 through and the scoring was completed on 59:09 when the Thunder went 6-0 – Ross Bowers doubling his goal tally on a powerplay assisted by Jamie Line and Greg Randall.
Referee: Hewitt
Points:
MK Thunder: A. Whyte 0+1, J. Line 0+1, T. Mboya 1+0, R. Grinell-Parke 1+1, G. Randall 0+2, R. Bowers 2+0, T. Rubes 2+0
Dynamos: None
Netminders:
- Lawday save percentage – 100% (37 shots/ goal)
- Morris save percentage – 86.05% (43 shots/ 6 goals)
PIMS:
MK Thunder: 12
Dynamos: 26
Man of the match:
MK Thunder: T. Rubes
Dynamos: R. Morgan
Picture supplied by Nicola Allen.