Dynamos suffer first league defeat

SWINDON Lynx become the first team to take points off the Medway-based ice hockey team Invicta Dynamos in the English National Premier League when they beat the travelling Mo's 6-3 on home ice. The final score did not reflect the closeness of the game with Lynx winning it in the last period with three unanswered goals, two in the last 70 seconds.

Tipped by many to be one of the favourites to take the ENPL title this season, the Dynamos will be disappointed not to have taken advantage of a short benched Lynx side who were missing six of their regular starters.

But the Dynamos had their own problems, without player coach Andy Hannah who was unavailable for the weekend and Mike Kindred playing despite a knee injury.

Swindon were further reduced to just 13 players during the game after forward Simon Keating was ejected from the proceedings for fighting and defenceman Wayne Fiddes limped out with suspected ligament damage to his knee.

Lynx were assured of victory largely thanks to debutante netminder Alec Field who saved 40 of the 43 shots he faced over the 60 minutes, a feat that earned him the man-of-the-match award.

In a free attacking game Dynamos netminder Matt Van Der Velden also had to be on top of his game but he was the first to be beaten on 5:04 when defencemen Sean Tarr stepped up from the blue line and smashed in a shot.

Ninety seconds later and Keating's game was over after he and Duane Ward came to blows when Ward appeared to lash out at a Swindon player from the confines of the penalty box and Keating took offence.

Despite playing short-handed Lynx doubled their advantage through Robin Davison before the ever dangerous Matt Beveridge broke the Dynamos duck when he found a lot of space in front of Field and tucked home a close range effort.

Elliot Andrews then cancelled out the Lynx lead just 38 seconds later after some good work around the Lynx net involving Beveridge once again.

In the second period Merv Priest restored the Lynx lead at 32:25 but a Ward strike five minutes later left the game on a knife-edge going into the third period.

In a tense last 20 Ken Forshee's neatly taken goal on 41.55 spurred on Invicta who went all out for an equaliser but were thwarted time and time again by the excellent Field.

Priest and Grant Bailey then broke the Dynamos with two late goals to register a scoreline that flattered the home side.

On a more positive note the Dynamos welcomed back influential defenceman Sean Clement who returned from a shoulder injury and put in a man of the match performance.

To their credit the Dynamos put their disappointment behind them and quickly returned to winning ways the following evening with a professional show to ease past the Nottingham Lions 6-2. The Dynamos were too strong for the young Lions but the Nottingham team gave a good account of themselves.

Peter Korff opened the scoring on 6.43 registering his first goal of the season while Andrews, Beveridge, Mikko Skinnari and Jake French were also on target. Ward was player of the match scoring one and getting two assists.

Barry Stubbs, press liasion officer, said: "It was tough weekend on the road. In the Swindon game the players made a real good go of it and for 58 minutes the game was tight. We missed Andy Hannah and with Mike Kindred playing with an injury it was not ideal. When Swindon visit us I think the game will have a different outcome although we know they are the team who are our biggest challengers for the league title.

"Against Nottingham we started slowly but the goals eventually came. The Lions were actually a lot stronger than we expected them to be and gave us a good game."

The Dynamos will be back at the Gillingham Ice Bowl this Sunday for a return match with Swindon Lynx, face off 5.15pm.