Ice men made to fight for victory

DYNAMOS' fans expecting a glut of goals at the Gillingham Ice Bowl were sorely disappointed as Nottingham team lived up to their name with a lion-hearted performance. The visitors, beaten 9-1 in their last visit to Medway, held the Mos 2-1.

It was the first time this season Invicta have won by just one goal at home and is a testament to the Lions never-say-die spirit.

Team manager Andy Mason said: "That was the most hard-working performance of any away team I have seen here all season. They never stopped skating and in the end we're grateful to have got the two points. It was not a brilliant performance by our boys. We'll just put it down to a bad day at the office."

The result was even more surprising as Nottingham had eight regular players not icing while Invicta were without Duane Ward and Matt Van Der Velden who both had pre-arranged leave. The Mos started brightly but if the league leaders thought Nottingham were going to lie down and take a beating they were wrong. They gave as good as they got as Kevin Parrish found out after tangling with Chris Colegate who received two minutes for high sticks on 6.23.

Invicta went back to basics on the powerplay with crisp passing from Sean Clement to Mikko Skinnari to Andy Hannah who blasted the puck low in to the corner at 7.17.

Hannah repaid the favour on 10.33 when he skilfully controlled the puck and with a sweet reverse pass found Skinnari in space to fire home the second.

But the expected avalanche of goals didn't happen. Instead five minutes later the Lions got the goal their gritty performance deserved, a cheeky reverse-stick flick by Adam Robinson after man of the match Joe Wightman had done all the hard work.

The second and third periods were scrappy goalless affairs where the Dynamos had to fight for everything. Player coach Hannah said: "It was tough but it got our legs working again after Christmas. They worked us hard, defended well and their goalie was exceptional."