The Invicta Dynamos departed from Milton Keynes on the wrong end of a 7-0 defeat in the clash between the bottom placed teams in the league.
Invicta Coach’ Kevin Parrish again had to ice a short roster with Arran Strawson and Owen Dell both missing meaning the Mos only had 12 skaters available. Starting in the nets was Conor Morris for the Mos and Jordan Lawday for the Thunder.
Louis Colvin registered the first shot on goal just after the first minute with Lawday not really troubled. The young Mos’ forward found himself sitting a two minute penalty half a minute later to put the home side on a powerplay. Conor Morris had to pull out two standard saves but other than that wasn’t really troubled too much. On 5:59 the Mos were presented with a powerplay with the Thunders’ Trevor Leblanc sitting two minutes in the penalty box. The Mos didnt take advantage of their extra man on the ice and were made to pay on 08:27 when Tomas Rubus picked-up a pass from Ross Green and fired a shot onto the post which deflected beyond Morris for 1-0 to the Thunder.
The Thunder started to dominate and Morris had to pull-off a massive save from Ross Bowers when the Thunder’ forward was left alone with only the netminder to beat. On the 10 minute mark Ondrej Zosiak surged forward for the Mos and had two attempts on the Thunder’ net with one shot whizzing just wide and the other saved by Lawday. The Mos then defended a Ryan Morgan holding penalty with the home side piling-on the pressure. When the Mos returned to full strength they were still defending deep and Michael Stratford had two good opportunities presented to him which he failed to convert.
The second period started with the Thunder hitting the post in the 21st minute before they doubled the score to 2-0 on 26:59 through Ross Green. The Mos could have pulled a goal back soon afterward when matt Foord cut the puck back for Ryan Morgan to get an edge on it but Lawday was alert enough to save. Morgan would then sit a holding penalty which the Thunder made the most from with Ross Bowers scoring for 3-0 on 30:31.
Louis Colvin fired a shot against Lawday’s crossbar on 31:04 and Lawday also denied Zosiak on 32:16 with the Mos desperately trying to get back into the game. The Kent side were soon left defending another powerplay on 34:30 with Foord sitting 4 minutes for a combination of hooking and cross-checking. But it was when the sides were both at full strength that the Thunder made it 4-0 through Sam Talbot on 39:25 after poor defending by the Mos.
After successfully defending a Ryan Giles holding penalty early into the 3rd period the Mos conceded again at full strength on 44:22 with Talbot grabbing his second goal of the evening for 5-0. It was soon 6-0 on 46:01 with Green also doubling his goal tally on a Harrison Lillis tripping powerplay on 46:01.
The Mos then fired a series of shots on Lawday through Colvin, Zosiak and Best but the shutout was looking more likely with the game starting to close out. A big talking point came on 48:57. Ryan Morgan got a hit slightly wrong and was pounded with a series of punches from Trevor Leblanc with the Mos d-man refusing to fight back. Rather than Leblanc receive a match penalty for fighting an unwilling opponent referee Cuglietta only gave the Thunder man a 2+2 minute fighting penalty. Battered and bruised Morgan had to sit 2 minutes for the initial kneeing incident which led to the blows and 2+2 minutes for ‘fighting’.
Gloves were properly dropped on 53:48 with Brandon Miles and Hallden Barnes-Garner going toe-to-toe and the Mos’ hard man nailing a successful takedown as well and landing the majority of the punches. Both players sat 4 minutes penalty minutes for their troubles. The Thunder ended the scoring for the night when Morris made a big save but Logan Prince was lurking in front of goal to shoot beyond the netminder for 7-0.
Referee: D. Cuglietta Linesmen: C. West, A. Stanley
Points:
Thunder: O. Stone 0+2, T. Leblanc 0+1, H. Barnes-Garner 0+1, R. Grinnell-Parke 0+2, R. Green 2+1, S. Norris 0+2, G. Randall 0+1, R. Bowers 1+1, S. Talbot 2+0, G. O’Flaherty 0+1, L. Prince 1+1, T. Rubes 1+0
Dynamos: None
Netminders:
- Lawday save percentage – 100% (26 shots/0 goals)
- Morris save percentage – 87.50% (56 shots/7 goals)
PIMS:
Thunder – 12 // Dynamos – 26
Man of the match:
Thunder – S. Talbot
Dynamos – L. Colvin