The Invicta Dynamos made it back to back wins as they comfortably beat the London Raiders in the Cup on Sunday night.
Kevin Parrish’s side went into the NIHL Southern Cup tie on a high after their opening weekend win against Bracknell Raiders and took to the ice with the same roster that had served them so well seven days before.
After a cagey opening nine minutes with neither side able to find the back of the net, the game suddenly exploded into life in the tenth minute with Bailey Wootton turning home the puck after a fine strike from Damien Welch.
The Dynamos were to take full advantage of a 5 on 3 powerplay less than a minute later as the Raiders lost their composure with import Ondrej Zosiak slamming home from just inside the blue line.
A couple of minutes later and it was 3-0 to the Dynamos as they made full use of yet another powerplay with Wootton grabbing his second of the night, turning home Conor Redmond’s initial strike.
It was to be 3-0 going into the first break with the Raiders clocking up penalty after penalty.
The second period proved to be much like the first, although the Dynamos had to wait until the 25th minute to extend their lead further with Eriks Ozollapa getting himself on the scoresheet, driving home from distance.
With the fans sensing the tension was rising, the gloves were dropped in the 26th minute when Brad Gutridge decided to avenge a hit on Joshua Condren by Mason Webster with the pair going toe to toe.
Chances were to come the way of both sides for the next minutes or so, but neither could trouble the scoreline until former Dynamos import Michal Oravec popped up in the 38th minute to beat Mark McGill from close range.
With less than a minute left on the clock, another former Dynamos import made it 4-2 as Marek Nahlik linked up well with Frankie Harvey, part of the Invicta side from last season, turning the puck past the diving McGill.
Knowing they needed to up a gear in the final twenty minutes, the Dynamos came out of the traps in the third period and took just 21 seconds to make it 5-2 with Jacob Ranson forcing the puck home from close range.
Thirty eight seconds later and it was 6-2 as captain Nicky Lewis slammed home to the delight of the home support.
Any doubt as to who would be the winner was put to bed in the 48th minute as Zosiak fired goalwards and Redmond was on hand to clip the puck home.
With former Dynamos netminder now on for the pulled Michael Gray, the Raiders pegged it back to 7-3 in the 47th minutes as they made use of a powerplay with Nahlik grabbing his second of the night.
Frankie Harvey showed his class in the 51st minute to take advantage of another Raiders powerplay, beating McGill once again, but it proved to be in vain as the Dynamos comfortably played out the rest of the game without alarm.
The man of the match awards went to Harvey for Raiders and Zosiak was given the beers for the home side after a stand out performance in only his second game for the club.
Attention will now switch to Thursday night when the Dynamos will face the Chelmsford Chieftains in the South East Trophy with face off in Gillingham at the revised time of 8:15pm.
To listen to our exclusive interviews with Arran Strawson and Eriks Ozollapa from after the game, click here:
https://audioboom.com/boos/3624474-arran-strawson-after-the-invicta-dynamos-beat-london-raiders-7-4
Pictures supplied by David Trevallion.