Invicta Dynamos’ head coach was encouraged by a weekend double header against the league leaders which produced mixed results.

The Mos followed up a penalty shootout win against Slough Jets on Saturday - after a 3-3 draw in Gillingham – with a 7-3 loss away from home on Sunday.

It was a tough assignment for the Mos, taking on the NIHL South Division 1 leaders twice over their final weekend of the year, but coach Karl Lennon said: “We're happy that we got some points out of the weekend and we're happy that we matched one of the best sides in the division.

“I think with a full roster, we would have given them an even better game than what we did this weekend, twice, and not just the once.

“There's good signs for the team that we're moving in the right direction. So I'm happy.

“Obviously, not happy about the scoreline on Sunday, but I don't think the scoreline was reflective of the game. It was pretty close most of the way through, apart from a small spell of dominance by them.”

Over the six periods from the two games, the Mos came out on top in half of them.

“We've got to take the positives out of the situation,” said the coach. “I was happy with the boys and I couldn’t fault the effort.

“They put a real shift in all weekend. It's not an easy team to play and they acquitted themselves well.”

In the first of the two games, the Mos didn’t have a great first period, finding themselves 2-0 down but they fought back to take it to a penalty shootout where netminder Brad Windebank made six saves and Aaron Connolly scored the sudden-death winner.

Lennon said: “We were missing a couple of players still from injury and one was unavailable as well for the weekend. We knew we had a tough task ahead of us, especially playing the team that's top of the division.

“We didn't have a good start on Saturday. I just don't think we were aggressive enough compared to where we played against them the last time. It just felt like we sat off of them too much and gave them too much time on the puck.”

Trailing 3-2 in the closing stages, the Mos pulled their netminder and it was Connolly who levelled it up with 30 seconds remaining.

“It was incredibly great timing,” recalled the coach. “It was a great atmosphere in the building at that point. We took it to overtime, and in overtime I thought we were the dominant team.

“We played the better three-on-three hockey and we were really good.

“In the shootout it was a story of the netminders, really. They both did amazingly well in the first round, saving the first five.

“We were the second takers in sudden death and Windy made his sixth save. He was fantastic and then Aaron popped up to score the winning penalty shot that got us the two points.

“It was a great night. The building was electric and everybody really enjoyed it.”

The Mos were even more shorthanded the following night.

Invicta Mustangs’ two-way player Sam Oliver, who played so well the night before, wasn’t available. Cameron Pywell got injured on the Saturday and Regan O’Neil picked up an injury after taking a puck to the knee on Sunday.

“We were sort of bare bones,” said the coach. “However, we started really, really well. We were 2-1 up in the first period.”

It was O’Neil and Connolly who scored to put the Mos 2-0 up on Sunday but a goal right at the end of the first session gave the Jets a boost.

An equalising goal for the home side early in the second was followed by three more as they led 5-2 going into the third period.

James Laming got one goal for the Mos but it was a challenge too far to pull it back.

“(Their first goal) was just a complete momentum killer for us,” Lennon said.

“They obviously got a lot of life from that. We lost the second period 4-0, which was devastating to the night, really.

“A few of the calls were questionable by the officials, but generally speaking, short on bodies, high energy from the night before sort of culminated in a loss of capacity from our side to handle them.

“They were in our zone almost the whole of that period. It was pretty dominant on their part.

“Towards the end of the game in the third period, we played better. We lost the period 2-1, but we had many scoring chances and we could have really finished that level.”

The Mos return to action on Sunday, January 5 at home to Solent Devils (5.45pm).