The Invicta Dynamos failed to take their chance of securing second in the league with defeat at Solent Devils on Saturday night.

The Dynamos travelled to the south coast without the injured twins of Haydn and Taylor Wootton and netminder Damien King, whilst Nicky Lewis was also unavailable.

The first period was pretty much all Invicta, with the home side rarely testing in form netminder John Dibble. His opposite netminder Chico Cole however kept his side in contention with a series of excellent saves.

As early as the 2nd minute Cole was spreading his body across his goalmouth when Josh Condren played a delightful pass to Callum Fowler whose shot was somehow saved by the Devils No. 1.

Soon after he was tipping a Bailey Wootton shot over the plexiglass and then watching a Tommy Ralph snapshot whizz just past his post.

Long range efforts from Arran Strawson and Ondrej Zošiak came to nothing as the Mo’s continued their dominant start. For the Devils, Mark Pitts was constantly cross checking and slashing at Mo’s players away from referee Blaine Evans eyes.

The second period started with the Steve Osman sending Brad Gutridge clear, Cole rescuing the home side yet again. Hit of the game came in the 23rd minute, Mason Webster dumping Mark Baroni thumping to the ice bottom first.

The Mo’s finally started the evening’s scoring on 28:49, Ashley Jackson with a sublime pass to Adam Řehák who shot across Cole and into the net. The lead would be short lived however, Matt Lawday on hand for 1-1 on 32:01.

Unhinged by letting the Devils back into the game, the Mo’s fell 2-1 behind on 33:29, Invicta slacking at the back leaving Tommy Ralph the only Mo defending a breakaway of 3 Devils, Facey squaring to Aidan Doughty to leave Dibble no chance.

Tempers continued to flare, Pitts again the main cause of trouble, however never willing to drop the gloves when confronted by Mason Webster. Solent doubled their lead for 3-1 on 38:35, Lawday claiming his 2nd of the night at the far post.

A big third period was on the cards for Invicta and they dominated the final frame, out shooting the Devils by 16 shots to 5.

The Mo’s clawed a goal back to reduce the margin to a single in the 51st minute when the Devils were down to 3 skaters, Matthew Lawday (slashing) and Ben Lock (high sticks) both sitting in the penalty box.

The goal came via Arran Strawson who drove a shot through bodies after a tee-up from Callum Fowler.

Netminder Cole then had his own personal battle with Ashley Jackson, denying the hockey star time after time.

John Dibble was pulled from the net in the final 13 seconds but the extra skater was not enough for the Mo’s to breakdown the home side.

So a defeat again for the Mo’s down at Gosport who continue to be a bogie team on a small pad for the Mo’s.

Ashley Jackson received the man of the match award for the Mo’s with Chico Cole unsurprisingly getting the honour for the Devils for his 96% save record from 50 shots.