The Invicta Dynamos suffered a defeat in Swindon on Saturday night despite originally taking the lead through Odrej Zosiak as the former EPL Wildcats fought back to take the points with a 7-1 victory.
Coach Kevin Parrish had to make do without the services of four skaters, that being Justin Robinson, Tom Long, Harrison Lillis and Scott Bailey leaving the with the Mos just short of 3 full lines with 14 players. Damien King took guard of the Dynamos net.
With the sides having already met twice this season and each team taken a victory this tie, on paper, always looked like a potentially tight contest. The start of the first period began with Aaron Nell being presented with an early chance for the home side but Damien King was on hand to save whilst, at the other end, Callum Fowler registered the away side’s first chance with a backhand flick which netminder Renny Marr was equal to.
The Mos carried on with attacking momentum and Jaroslav Cesky from the left flank found Ashley Jackson on 03.40 who shot wide of the pipes. King was then called into action several timwes in the space of a couple of minutes – pulling out saves from Jordan Kelsall and Sam Zajac. The Wildcats were later made to pay for those misses with the visitors going in front on 05.55 – Callum Fowler finding Ondrej Zosiak on the left who drilled a powerful drive beyond Marr for 1-0.
Maxim Birbraer then failed to convert another chance for the Wildcats before Chris Jones missed a glaring one-on-one with King. The Wildcats finally pulled level on 16 minutes though – Aaron Nell dispatching past the netminder with Jones and Zajac assisting for a 1-1 scoreline at the end of the first period.
The second period wasn’t great for the Dynamos. George Hoang was the victim of an early penalty call leaving the Mos to defend on the powerplay which the Wildcats took full advantage from on 22.21 with Jan Kostal striking past King for 2-1. Within a few minutes the lead extended to 3-1 with Floyd Taylor skating past King and striking into the net on 25.19. King then denied Nell with the Mos failing to break out of their own zone and it was of little surprise when Sam Bullas extended the Wildcats lead to 4-1 on 26.45.
A rare attack by the Mos saw Cesky call Marr into action but that was of little scare to the Wildcats as they surged forward once again to make it 5-1 on 28.39 with Nell grabbing his second goal of the evening. The gloves were off on 33 minutes – a scramble in the Wildcats goalmouth had Brandon Webster and Samual Godfrey trading blows with young Webster putting up a good fight in an even contest. The Wildcats struck their 6th goal on 34.44 – Floyd Taylor grabbing his second of the game after Kostal found him lurking in space.
The fighting was far from done – netminder Marr slashing at Mason Webster a couple of times which led to Webster confronting the netminder before Sam Bullas and Webster then traded blows – Webster getting the takedown but the period ending with a sorry 6-1 scoreline.
For the final period the Mos changed netminder with John Dibble replacing Damien King who’s save percentage ended at 82.35%. The Mos had an early penalty following an Aaron Nell tripping offence but despite huffing and puffing the Kent side failed to breakdown the Wildcats defence.
The home side increased the lead to 7-1 on 45.11 – Chris Jones releasing Maxim Birbraer to deke Dibble and finish off a class move for a great team goal. Dibble then went on to deny a hat-trick twice and also pulled off an outstanding save at the feet of Michael Power as the Wildcats looked to increase the goal margin but, despite firing a total of 13 shots at Dibble in the final period, it was only the Birbraer’ goal that beat him.
So a 7-1 defeat for the Mos who were outshot 47 to 22. Callum Fowler picked-up the man of the match awards for the Dynamos, with home netminder Marr collecting the beers for the Wildcats.
Written by Lee Allen.
