An overtime defeat for the Invicta Dynamos on Saturday gave them extra motivation to brush aside Milton Keynes Thunder the following day.

The Mos faced back to back away matches and against the Romford Junior Raiders they held a two-goal advantage for much of the night, only to throw it away at the end. Romford won it in overtime after a 6-6 finish.

Sunday’s trip to MK was a chance to put a few things right and a 7-2 victory completed a three-point weekend and ended a super month for the Mos.

Coach Karl Lennon said: “If I had been asked before that we could go through January with only dropping one point then I would have bitten your hand off.

“In the wider context of the season so far, it is a great step forward in January and we’re most definitely happy with that, but in the context of the game itself on Saturday, where we led on multiple occasions, it was incredibly frustrating.

“The singular fault for me was the positional play that we had in the game, we were quite naive against their abilities, which is counter attacking with speed. We got caught out on a few occasions, something we have avoided doing for the last month and I didn’t see it coming. I thought the guys were smart enough to switch onto it.”

The Mos had a 6-4 lead heading into the last three minutes but the Raiders were given a lifeline.

Lennon said: “We conceded a stupid penalty, conceded on the power-play and then of course momentum is completely with them for the last couple of minutes, they got an equaliser and we went to overtime.

“We got a point, which is something, but I fancied ourselves in overtime because of the players we have, quite honestly the guys on the ice in over time did not perform, they stole the puck off us when we were coming out of our zone, a very young and talented hockey player then puts it in our end and it was the job done for them.

“It was great disappointment because the game was in our hands and we threw it away. In the context of the season not horrendous but in the context of the night, it was like a real gut punch.

“Their energy was fantastic all the way through and I felt they deserved something, we really didn’t on the basis that we kept letting ourselves down.

“I can only praise them and their performance, they played really well, we were very below-par and at the end of it we got found out. It served as extra motivation to go into Sunday’s game against Milton Keynes.”

The Gillingham side ensured their weekend finished on a high in Milton Keynes, with captain Tom Davis scoring the opener as he took his points tally for the club into treble figures.

There was also a first Dynamos hat-trick for Tom Soar.

Lennon said: “Positionally we were much better, the intensity was much better than we had shown the night before. There was a clear level of quality that we had in the chances we took to get the job done.

“Tom Soar’s hat-trick was fantastic, he has been popping up with a goal here and there but that was the type of performance that we know he is capable of, and it was great to see him to that.

“The rest of the team also performed really well, I thought our third line on Sunday was excellent. Davis scored a great goal and our young lads Harry Blake and Brandon Chard led by example with their performance in the offensive zone and Billy Woods and Taylor Chard had two of their best games of the season and really stood out for me as a line that did fantastic. I was happy with parts of it, other parts we can still work on.

“It was good to get back on track with another win and three out of four points is not something to be ashamed of.”