An Andy Smith hat-trick provided the perfect response for Kevin Parrish’s Invicta Dynamos as they came away from Solent with a much needed win.

Invicta travelled down to the south coast minus Mark Lee, Danny Terry, Callum Fowler and Grant Baxter with Mark McGill starting in the Invicta goal. Nicky Lewis paired with Arran Strawson at D on the first line.

The game was three minutes old when a scramble in front of Christian Cole’s goal left a loose puck falling to Michal Oravec who gave Invicta the perfect start with the opening goal. With both teams seeing out penalties on Arran Strawson (tripping) and Ralfs Circenis (charging) it was Solent who was next on the score sheet on 07:56 with George Norcliffe following-up Ralfs Circenis shot to equalise.

A brilliant save by Mark McGill on 14:29 from Alex Sampford fell straight to Mitchell Murray who with his back to goal spun his marker and shot Solent in front with the scores staying that way to the end of the first period.

Solent’s Alex Sampford was sent to the penalty box on 21:36 to leave Solent defending a powerplay against the Dynamos who came out all guns blazing. Efforts were rewarded on 22:16 with Anthony Leone shooting from a tight angle and Frankie Harvey deflecting the puck past Cole to make it 2-2, Juraj Huska claiming the second assist.

The Dynamos had to defend a 3 on 5 following penalties on Arran Strawson and Juraj Huska on the half-hour mark, but Mark McGill and the defence stood firm. Adam McNicoll and Nicky Lewis swapped playing position for the second and third periods, with the Scot impressing on the backline. Although the Solent rink is tight for space, Arran Strawson found Juraj Huska in space on 37:24 with the forward powering a shot past Cole from the blue line to give Invicta a 3-2 lead.

That goal rattled Solent and with a second left of the second period, Andy Smith increased the lead to 4-2 with a calm finish past Cole with Strawson again claiming an assist.

An Arran Strawson clearance was intercepted by Solent import Andrew Campbell on 43:31 and he pulled the scores back to 3-4 in favour of the Dynamos with Mark McGill given little chance to make save. On 49:18 Michal Oravec skated past his marker and squared the puck to Andy Smith who made no mistake to increase the score to 3-5.

Invicta’s Jack Lee showed his anger at being called for a check to the head on 49:41 when he hit the plexi in the penalty box with his stick resulting in referee Jurijs Solovjovs giving the young forward a ten minute misconduct penalty.

With Solent sensing the opportunity to take advantage of the extra man on the ice they were left short at the back and on 51:28 they were left to pay for it with Invicta gaining a shorthanded goal.

Arran Strawson won the puck and fed Michal Oravec who found Andy Smith in the clear on the left hand side and the star forward found the back of the net to claim his hat-trick, Arran Strawson also got his third assist of the night for his efforts.

Anthony Leone ended the scoring on 58:35 with a lifted shot past Cole to finish the scores on 3-7 and give Invicta much needed points. Mark McGill had an impressive debut with a save percentage of 92.50% having faced 40 shots. Man of the match however was given to Andy Smith for his hat-trick.