Lee Valley Lions

Invicta Dynamos

Goals

Penalties

Lee Valley Lions

Invicta Dynamos

Additional Comments:

The Lions knew they wouldn’t have an easy time against one of last season’s high-flying teams and it took little over three minutes for the Invicta Dynamos to fire out of the starting blocks and establish a 2-goal lead. A third winner looked likely as Stuart Low fired at close range but netminder Stefan Nubert defied the odds and kept the goal at bay.

Making an early assumption that the game was there for the taking, Invicta swapped netminders less than halfway through the first period. Under 19s player Jonathan Silvester replaced Ian Rowlands, who had faced just a single shot on goal from the Lions.

Two goals in less than a minute got past Stefan, with the Dynamos’ Martin Rider already netting his second of the game at 11:36, followed by the first offering from Stuart Low at 12:23. With back-up netminder George Alley sidelined through injury Stefan had no choice but to battle on.

Gennadi Yufit found himself on a breakaway, although the goal eluded him as the Invicta netminder held his nerve, then at 18:51 Chris Goddard made the most of a powerplay opportunity and swiped a fantastic shot from the blue line past young Silvester. Despite the effort, Lions were still left trailing 1-4 at the end of the first period.

The Lions held the Dynamos at bay for 20 minutes until the peace was shattered with a 4-goal barrage of class moves that started at 33:12 with a powerplay winner from Andy Smith. The play wasn’t all one-sided, Ben Osborne also scoring on a powerplay at 37:00 and Man of the Match Chris Goddard proving his worth by preventing an 8th Invicta goal a minute later.

Much to the delight of the visiting Dynamos fans, 6’5″ Ben was toppled at the beginning of the third period by 15-year-old James Gosling but play continued and Andy Smith scored his hat-trick for the Dynamos at 46:51. Stefan Nubert made a couple of skilful saves, but a lethal blue-line wrist shot from Alex Shaw and an 11th goal from Donald Gagnon just 18 seconds later finished off the Invicta scoring for the night. The Lions sadly failed to capitalise on several goal-shooting opportunities and the Invicta netminder was left largely untroubled.

In the dying seconds of the game Dynamos’ Grant Baxter took exception to a perceived injustice between his James Gosling and our Ben Shrubsole, so fisticuffs erupted between Baxter and Shrubsole. Officials were quick to break them apart and Baxter was penalised with no fewer than 47 minutes for his heavy-handed actions, including both Misconduct and Match penalties.

Another skirmish was to evolve just 15 seconds later, this time between Paul O’Neill, and Invicta forward Karl Lennon. Both players were penalised for the punch-up, while Lennon’s brother, Anthony, also received a 10-minute penalty for his unsporting conduct.

Referee was Wargitsch, Linesmen were O’Neill and Shrubsole (not the O’Neill and Shrubsole who were fighting, obviously).