Invicta Dynamos fight for a place in the NIHL Southern Cup final this weekend and have every reason to feel confident they can get there.

Standing in their way are Solent Devils - a team they beat 6-4 away in the league last Saturday. They followed it up by beating Oxford City Stars on Sunday. This weekend’s semi-final is played over two legs, with the second match played in Gillingham on Sunday.

Last Saturday’s win against the side sitting second in NIHL South Division 1 was up there with the best results of the season and gives them a huge boost going into this weekend’s clash with the Devils.

Head coach Karl Lennon said: “That result puts us in a good place because the belief is there now that we can do it.

“We knew we would be playing them in the cup and I built it up with the team, saying it was an opportunity to set a precedent and an expectation for ourselves for the next weekend. I knew we could beat them, there was no question in my mind.

“We were unlucky before Christmas not to come away with anything in that game at home (losing 2-1 to Solent on December 18). There was a lot of confidence taken even in a loss there that we could do something and we did it.

“We travelled there on Saturday just gone with an army of fans who were loud throughout the game and they made it feel homely for us in their rink. The good thing for us is that the performance for us is in the short-term memory now, just a few days ago. We can build on it, work on it in practice, take every confidence in it and go forward.

“These games are the reason we play, to be in special situations and special occasions. The guys now have to put in a good week of work and show up on Saturday and Sunday to get ourselves to a cup final and that for me is where this club belongs.

“I was fortunate to be part of a rich period of success for this club (as a player) in the past and those moments are special and I want this for these boys, they deserve it, they work hard and hard work should be rewarded.”

The win in Gosport last Saturday was well-earned. Netminder Owen Rider produced a top performance all weekend and was particularly resilient to help keep the hosts out in the first period of the league match.

Invicta kept in touch during the second period, trailing 3-2 after the hosts showed their strength on the power-play. An equaliser was followed by another Solent goal and from 4-3 down, Invicta kicked on as Lennon shortened the lines.

He said: “We pressed them hard, got a penalty with four minutes left and Juraj Huska scored an absolute magical slap-shot into the top corner which was a game changer, it gave us all the confidence to believe that we could get a result. You could see the belief drained out of them very quickly.”

Harrison Lillis put them ahead with his first of the season and an empty-net goal right at the end sealed it, to the delight of the travelling fans.

“Our fans were electric the whole way through the game,” said the coach.

“The travelling fans were the ones who could be heard, it was a fantastic performance and a great win and something we knew we could do.

“We have spoken a lot about closing the gap on the top sides but now it is about turning the tide and turning these near misses into results and they did that, all credit to them, they were excellent on Saturday.”

There was a hangover from that big win, however, as a failure to convert early chances at home on the Sunday against Oxford City Stars left them in trouble early on.

Oxford were two-up at the end of the first and then added a third to leave the Mos with it all to do. They turned it around, however, with Huska scoring twice and Stanislav Lascek getting a hat-trick in a 5-3 win.

Lennon said: “It was the age old situation, when you don’t take your chances the other team goes down the other end and scores, it happened twice. We put ourselves in a position we didn’t need to be in. We had dominated possession, spent most of the game in their end, we just didn’t put the puck in their net.

“We had out-shot them in the first period and I wasn’t happy because I felt we lacked composure, lacked a certain level of intensity, we didn’t stick to the game-plan. We blitzed them in the first period last time we played them. This time it couldn’t have been more different.

“I gave them the benefit of the doubt going into the second period because of what I thought would be a hangover, left the lines as they were, but as the game crept on and touched halfway I knew I had to make some changes, I had to shorten the lines, I had to go with the guys I knew were capable of pulling us back into it, I don’t like doing it, I like to run three lines every weekend but sometimes difficult times call for difficult measures and we had to do something.

“The players who stole the show were Lascek and Huska and we got a deserved win, although we made it much harder than we needed to.”

It was the Mos' first four-point weekend of the season and makes it four wins from the last five for the improving side.

Lennon said: “One thing we hadn’t done this season was get two wins in a weekend, if we want to climb the table then that is what we need to do. They responded perfectly and we got what we deserved, we played hard, worked hard and we got the just rewards for it.

“We need to do that more regularly. I said before Christmas it was about consistency and hopefully that is the start. Four wins out of the last five games is great, now we need to keep that form going.”

Face-off on Sunday is 5.15pm and fans are encouraged to purchase tickets online in advance to avoid disappointment.