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Ice men close to winning silverware

IT WAS a goal befitting a team of champions elect as Andy Hannah sealed Invicta Dynamos' away match 3-1 at Swindon. It all but brought the English National Premier League title back to Medway for the first time.

All the Invicta Dynamos have to do now to win the silverware is to beat the bottom two sides, Haringey and England, which should be a foregone conclusion. Maximum points from these games will give Invicta 43 points and no other team will be able to catch them, which takes all the pressure off the final game away at Romford.

Isle of Wight blew their chances with a 4-3 defeat at Romford, while Solihull went top with an 8-6 away win at Haringey to keep the pressure on the Mos. Then on Sunday Invicta did the double over Swindon and did their league cup hopes the world of good with a fine 6-2 home victory.

Player coach Hannah said: “It's been a great weekend, in which we rose to the occasion and took a step closer to winning the league. It was a decent performance away at Swindon and Matt Van Der Velden played very well all weekend.”

In the first game, Swindon put up quite a fight on home ice and there wasn't much between the two sides until Hannah won it at 59.08 as Swindon were going all out for the equaliser. The home side had taken a time out with 90 seconds of the game remaining and pulled netminder Craig Wynn to maximise their offence and the tactic almost paid off as they forced the Mos back.

It was heart in your mouth time for the travelling fans but all their dreams came true when Invicta got the puck free. The never-say-die attitude of the Mos was evident as Hannah dramatically flicked the puck, while falling, up the ice and in to the unguarded net.

The game not only ended well for the Mos but it started well too when Matt Beveridge put them in front at 5:07 assisted by Duane Ward, back from suspension, and Phil Chard.

Two penalties called on the home side at 6.00 and 7.54 gave Invicta powerplays but they came to nothing as Swindon's man of the match Wynn and his post denied the Dynamos a deserved two-goal lead.

Not to be outdone between the pipes by his Lynx counterpart Mos goaltender Matt Van Der Velden pulled off his first of a string of big saves and at the final buzzer he too took the man of the match accolade for an impressive seventh time this season.

Both netminders played exceptionally well in the second period with Ward going closest for the Mos after a jinking run. Midway through the period, Russell Cowley sneaked in and took Merv Priest's pass to make it 1-1.

Mike Kindred and Mikko Skinnari almost restored the lead with a quick breakaway and in an end-to-end spell brave defending by Sean Clement and a world-class glove save by Van Der Velden kept the sides level going in to the third period.

It was horribly tense until a great team move saw Skinnari pass to Hannah behind the goal who slipped the puck to Kindred to slot home at 45.16. Priest should then have equalised for the Lynx before Hannah came up trumps.

After this classic, Sunday's game was always going to struggle to live up to the previous day’s excitement and in a scrappy first period the most exciting thing that happened was a pane of glass shattering.

The visitors took the lead after 15 minutes through Grant Bailey and a defensive mix up seconds before the buzzer gave Swindon a 2-0 lead going in to the second period.

A different Mos side came out after the break and Wynn was beaten within 73 seconds by Elliott Andrews followed by an absolute beauty by Clement and one from man of the match Kindred to make it 3-2.

The turnaround was all too much for Swindon's Lee Braithwaite who had been picking up penalties like they were going out of fashion and at 35.54 he completely lost it and was ejected from the game for roughing. A short handed goal at 37.40 by Kindred and Jake French getting in on the act saw Invicta go in to the third with a healthy 5-2 lead.

Swindon's misery was complete when Kindred scored his second short-handed goal knocking the stuffing out of Swindon who had they put as much effort in to their skating as they did their tempers would have made more of a game of it.

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