Invicta Dynamos’ head coach isn’t one for openly criticising officials, but he couldn’t keep silent after a frustrating weekend as their season ended in disappointment.

Karl Lennon watched on as a promising start to Mos’ NIHL Southern play-off challenge crumbled before his eyes with decisions made by referee Thrower proving costly in their Quarter-Final with Solent Devils.

The Mos led 2-0 after the early exchanges in Gillingham on Saturday before the official started to hand out penalties - including two five-minute majors - and a disputed goal as Solent got back in the tie, taking a 4-3 lead to their own rink.

Lennon felt confident about turning it around but they were always up against it and Solent won 7-1, 11-4 on aggregate.

“I don’t feel we had a fair shake of the games both days,” admitted coach Lennon.

“I think the officials really influenced the results massively. I don’t want it to sound like sour grapes but it honestly felt like that.

“We played really well on Saturday, we were excellent in the first period, they got a goal, a bit of a freakish goal (for 2-1), that we would want back for sure, out of nothing really, but I felt we were incredibly dominant.”

On an incident-filled night, Solent lost veteran D-man Calumn Perella-Fox in the warm-up after a stray puck hit him in the face, leaving him in A&E for the night - eventually getting stitched up at about 10am the next day.

Goals from Mads Thune and Ruskin Springer-Hughes put the Mos in charge.

Solent levelled for 2-2, with a goal given that many felt didn’t even go in, and there was a drama at the ‘bar end’ of the ice when Oliver Bronnimann hit the boards with force. By the time order was restored, two five-minute penalties were handed to the Mos as a visiting player was stretchered off after being knocked out.

It was the moment that changed the pattern of play as the Mos went to playing three against five.

Lennon said: “Quite clearly from the video you can see that the player who was following our player into the corner pushes the back of his skates, recklessly and dangerously, into the barrier with full force and thankfully he didn’t do any damage to himself.”

Regan O’Neil jumped to the defence of his team-mate to confront the perpetrator (Cain Russell). Lennon said: “They’re saying the guy’s done it accidentally but he didn’t, he knew exactly what he was doing. Regan grabbed hold of him, doesn’t really do anything, then the guy falls to the ice.

“In all of that incident, multiple players have their gloves off, no real fights happen, yet two of our players get five-minute major penalties, one for fighting and the other for third man in.

“Oddly, the guy who gets third man in (Bronnimann) is the guy at the centre of the incident who gets brought down in the first place.

“In all of that, we got an extra two-minute penalty for instigation, where clearly the incident was instigated by the first push, not by the fight.

“It was all very weird and we are then killing a five-on-three penalty for five minutes and they were absolutely tremendous.”

On the goal controversy, Lennon said: “We have had good ones and bad ones and there are fine margins. It is fast-paced, so frantic, you just don’t know sometimes but if you don’t know you shouldn’t give it.”

The Mos got to the end of the second period level at 2-2 but conceded early in the third while still down to three players. With a full complement, Stanislav Lascek got Invicta level but the visitors responded within seconds to lead 4-3.

Bronnimann was forced to sit out in the second game through suspension while Russell - who had joined Perella-Fox at hospital after regaining consciousness - was there to watch.

Lennon said: “You think, ‘what a performance, to come away with that result bearing in mind that real shortfall’ and on Sunday we felt comfortable going to Solent and picking up a win.

“But within the first 10 minutes, we’d had two or three two-minute minor penalties which were extremely questionable and it was the same official that we had on Saturday.

“We were at a loose end immediately, they scored a couple of goals and we are constantly chasing, we managed to pull one back and were only two behind in the tie and feeling we could get back into it but the same sort of thing happened.

“I think we were served around 18-20 two-minute minor penalties during the game for pretty much nothing on each occasion and they barely sat a penalty all weekend.

“A lot of their hits were reckless, late, high with elbows, and I don’t care so much about that, it is part of hockey, you have to play physically, I accept that, but if they are not going to get penalties then we shouldn’t.

“It felt like every time anything happened we were on the short end of it.”

It’s not the first time the Mos have come unstuck in the play-offs with referee Thrower in charge. It’s now three years running.

There was an incident in Bristol where the Mos had been looking comfortable before conceding a goal after the puck went out of play, hitting the netting before landing in front of the goal and being converted. The Mos subsequently got a number of penalties off the back of complaining and the momentum of the game changed. They won on the night but lost on aggregate.

The following year in Milton Keynes the Mos had a goal chalked off by the same official.

“He (Thrower) wouldn’t even talk to us by midway through the second game,” Lennon added. “He barely talked to us in the first game and that’s not professional.”