THE Gillingham-based Invicta Dynamos ice hockey team did not let an unfortunate 9-2 defeat by Romford Raiders dampen their title celebrations on Sunday.

The squad lifted the English National Hockey League trophy they won last month in front of a large crowd of noisy fans.

Their supporters backed them throughout against Romford in their English National Premier League Cup clash, especially when Jamie Lake got a five-minute plus game penalty for elbows on former-Mo Stuart Low.

From the resulting powerplay Romford scored three times to help record a rather flattering scoreline.

The Mos held Romford 2-1 (Gary Dodds) in the first period, before Romford’s professional exports Juuso Vakkilainen (3+2) and Jani Keskinen (2+2) started to make a difference.

Captain Danny Marshall, Rob Douglas (2) and another former Dynamo Elliott Andrews scored Romford’s other goals, while Paul Hume sparked wild celebrations when he latched onto Andy Martin’s pass to score a short-handed consolation.

PLAY-OFF DATES: March 14 (h) v Basingstoke (5.15pm), March 21 (a) v Oxford (6pm), March 28 (a) v Milton Keynes (6.30pm), April 3 (a) v Basingstoke (6.30pm), April 4 (h) v Oxford (5.15pm), April 11 (h) v Milton Keynes (5.15pm).