THE Gillingham-based Invicta Dynamos ice hockey team beat both Romford and Isle of Wight at the weekend after gifting both sides substantial leads.

Slow out of the blocks, the Mos stormed back to beat Romford 5-3 in the cup and Isle of Wight 4-2 to continue their climb up the English National Premier League.

Player coach Carl Greenhous said: "Against Romford we were pathetic for the first half of the game. It was a disgraceful 30 minutes of hockey, fortunately for us game's are 60 minutes long and we came back strongly and managed to win by the skin of our teeth.

"Tonight we went into the game with a few bumps and bruises and Jake French played through the pain barrier after damaging his hand dishing it out against Romford."

"Again the team made a poor start, but we ended solid and eked out another win thanks to top performances by Vandy and Ward."

Romford applied early pressure to the home net with Samuli Mykkanen, Noel Burkitt and Rob Douglas all being denied by the excellent Matt Van Der Velden.

Phil Lee opened the scoring at 18.53 before he was thrown out with a 5+game checking from behind call, at the same time as Mykkanen took a 2+10 checking from behind penalty.

Romford started the second period having to kill off a further 4.46 of the penalty, but Invicta disappointingly turned the puck over to Jamie Randall whose saved shot rebounded to Douglas who tucked the puck into the empty net.

When Beveridge was called for unsportsmanlike conduct the visitors scored their third goal of the night when Marshall's shot from the point hit the pipes and the rebound again fell to Douglas.

Elliot Andrews was denied a goal by an amazing glove save, before Ward was allowed time to skate in on Field and put a shot into the roof of the net at 29.58.

Nineteen seconds later Clement's pass picked out Andrews on the edge of the crease and he tipped the puck over Field.

A fight between Jake French and Rob Cole saw both players sit out double roughing minors with the Raider coming out the scrap considerable worse off with a broken nose and sorely dented pride.

Invicta tied the game when Andrews pulled the puck out from behind the net and Beveridge took his time to wait for Field to go down before lifting the puck over at 36.41.

Just over a minute later the home side took the lead when man of the match Paul Hume hammered Ward's cross-ice pass. Hume made the game safe at 45.44 cutting in from the right and sliding the puck under Field.

Mos fans got a sense of dÈj‡ vu the following night at the Ice Bowl when Invicta allowed the Raiders, this time the Isle of Wight, to ease into a two-goal lead within five minutes through James Hutchinson and Brad Kenny.

Ward, who once again looked a class apart, then gave Andy Moffat a glimpse of his intentions with a thunderbolt that almost knocked the netminder off his skates.

The Canadian started causing havoc in the Raiders' defence and should have been awarded a penalty shot when Steve Gannaway and Scott Carter took his legs from under him as he bore down on goal.

Instead referee Mo Ashraff lamely awarded a minor hooking penalty on Carter and as the penalty ran out Ward scored unassisted at 10.22.

Matt Beveridge equalised just over two minutes later with a beautifully taken goal when Michael Wales dummied Andrews' pass allowing Beveridge to skate onto it and flick a great shot past Moffat.

The second period was tight with Beveridge unfairly having a goal chalked off for offside and Hume forcing Moffat into a top smothering save.

Sustained pressure from Invicta resulted in Ward forcing the puck home.

David Kozier had a great one-on-one chance to put Raiders back on level terms, but man of the match Van Der Velden got a leg to the shot and nicked the puck around the post.

Clement pulled off an exceptional last-ditch tackle to stop Adam Carr, but was called for slashing before the visitors called a time out with 2.04 on the clock.

The gamble to pull Moffat almost paid off when Raiders got a powerplay after Beveridge in his eagerness to beat Carter to the puck and the lure of the empty net got two minutes for hooking.

With 47 seconds remaining Raiders went all out for the equaliser, but Ward stole the puck and sent it sliding up the ice to win the game with a shorthanded goal and secure a deserved hat-trick.