THE Dreams of the Giullingham-based Invicta Dynamos ice hockey team were broken at the weekend at the same time as influential forward Duane Ward's leg.

The double-winning side were hoping for an unprecedented treble, but injuries and a lack of depth in the team roster helped Romford Raiders to an 8-7 aggregate win.

The Mos were in control of the first leg away at Romford on Saturday night until Ward was stretchered off and despite further injury when Elliott Andrews dislocated his shoulder almost won the tie with a battling home performance.

Team manager Andy Mason said: "It was a classic cup final contested by two great teams. Unfortunately, in the second leg we were forced to change our lines although those that came in did well, especially Kevin Parrish who chose the perfect moment to score his first goal of the season.

"Luck just wasn't on our side, we hit the crossbar twice, but we've won two titles and achieved everything we set out to do at the start of the season."

With so much to play for 22 minutes in penalties were called in the first leg, in which Mos started well with Matt Beveridge getting a breakaway goal, assisted by Andrews, at 6.51. Romford equalised at 9.59 on a powerplay through captain Danny Marshall before an excellent shot by Ward saw the Mos go into the break ahead.

Just 46 seconds into the second James Duval levelled, Carl Greenhous assisted by Mike Kindred put the Mos ahead once more, but the Raiders capitalised on another powerplay at 39.01 through Jamie Randall. As the powerplay and period were coming to a close Invicta scored but the goal was disallowed as a player was in the crease.

Thirty seconds into the third the puck was sent up centre ice and Ward and Rushton gave chase. On the wet ice the puck stopped dead causing both players to check back and it was in this collision that Ward cracked his tibia. It was a sad end to a great season for the free-scoring Canadian who was sorely missed from then on.

The Raiders took the lead for the first time at 53.49 with a goal from Marshall, assists going to ex-Dynamos Timo Kauhanen and Jaakko Komulainen, and made it 5-3 when Duval scoring an unassisted short handed goal with five minutes remaining.

At the Ice Bowl on Sunday night tactics played a big part in Romford's victory. Every time Invicta sent their first line out the Raiders would ice theirs to cancel out the attacking threat. They worked to wear down an already tired side that only had two lines and the Raiders second string was further strengthened in the last period with the introduction of flying Finns Kauhanen and Komulainen.

In a tight first two periods Rushton and Marshall were on target for the Raiders and man of the match Andy Hannah twice equalised before fate dealt the home side another cruel blow when they lost Andrews.

After having his shoulder popped back in he did bravely try to continue, but Kevin Parrish had to take his place.

The Ice Bowl erupted in the third when Mikko Skinnari and Parrish beat Simon Smith in the Romford net within 30 seconds of each other. With the game all square on aggregate the Raiders were on the wrack and Mos surged forward.

Hannah was unlucky not to score when the puck bobbled just before he let fly and the puck slammed against the crossbar, as it had earlier in the game for Beveridge.

James Duval then hit an unstoppable shot to calm Romford nerves and with time running out and netminder Matt Van Der Velden pulled Rushton sealed it 30 seconds before the end skating down ice to put the puck into the empty net.

Player coach Hannah said: "The bar broke my heart, if that had gone in it would have turned the game for us. We missed our injured players and our shallow bench snuck up on us, but through adversity we showed the championship winning spirit of the side and almost did it.

"We could not have put more effort in out there on the ice and can console ourselves with the two winners medals we've already won in what has been an outstanding season."