Mos lose out to London despite Jackson strike

Dec 18, 2017 | All News, Results

london_161217Ashley Jackson put the Invicta Dynamos ahead on the road against the London Raiders on Saturday evening but the Mos eventually lost out 3-1 at the hands of the hosts in the league at Lee Valley Ice Centre.

Head Coach Kevin Parrish had to make do without a number of skaters including defencemen Arran Strawson, Ryan Morgan, George Hoang and forward Josh Condren. Making his debut was one-time London Raider Ross Connolly. Any pre-match plans were disrupted early on due to the kit arriving late leaving the Dynamos barely a couple of minutes to warm-up, but on the plus side, the hosts were missing key forward Juraj Huska.

The first period started with the Mos pressing the Raiders from the puck drop and Louis Colvin registering the first shot of the game with netminder Michael Gray getting down well to save. Pressure only really switched to the other end when the visitors were defending Steve Osman’s hooking penalty. When the Dynamos returned to full strength, Ondrej Zosiak found himself venturing into the Raiders half of the pad and when he hit the puck towards goal Alan Lack took the shot straight to his face and received considerable injuries that would see him play no further part in the tie and require hospital treatment.

Mason Webster and Jaroslav Cesky both went close for Invicta as the visitors looked to strike the first goal of the evening. A major talking point came in the 17th minute – debutant Ross Connolly checking Raiders Brandon Ayliffe near to the Dynamos net and referee Stephenson deeming it to be high sticks and a match penalty which was later reduced to game. With the Mos now defending a 5 minute penalty the expectation was for the Raiders to creep ahead but all hopes were restricted when Matt Turner got penalised for holding leaving both teams with 4 skaters each on the ice. Within a minute of the penalty the Mos went ahead – Tommy Ralph finding Jaroslav Cesky in space who in turn cut a deadly pass to Ashley Jackson who fired beyond Gray for 1-0 on 19.11.

The second period was a tighter affair with both sides cancelling each other out time after time. The Dynamos were forced to play forward Scott Bailey in defence due to only having 3 recognised defencemen left. Despite looking tight at the back the Kent side’s resilience was finally broken when the Raiders did get the scores level in the 25th minute – Jake Sylvester producing a save out of Damien King but when the puck rebounded back out Sylvester couldn’t miss and the scoreboard quickly displayed 1-1. Ashley Jackson, Callum Fowler and Louis Colvin all had opportunities in the period but Gray was equal to anything thrown at him to set-up a tense 3rd period.

The final period started with an early goal for the Raiders – Brendon Ayliffe dispatching past King in the 42nd minute to give the hosts a 2-1 lead. A few minutes later Kevin Parrish called a timeout which rallied his troops to force more pressure in the Raiders zone – chances falling to Jackson and Mason Webster but both forwards guilty of missing the target. With the game closing out Damien King was pulled from his net with the Mos opting for an extra forward – but the gamble didn’t pay off with Marek Nahlik scoring in the empty net on 59.59 to hand the Raiders a 3-1 victory and maintain their 100% win record against the Dynamos this season.

Man of the match awards went to Invicta netminder Damien King and Raiders forward Brendon Ayliffe.

Written by Lee Allen.