2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Luke Cawdell)
Invicta Dynamos’ coach praised the effort of his team and the fans who backed them as they pulled off an incredible comeback win. Karl Lennon’s side were up against it in their NIHL Southern play-off quarter-final tie with the Solent Devils after losing their home leg 3-0 on Saturday in Gillingham. Sunday’s trip to Gosport for the return leg was a thriller as the Mos battled back to level the tie on the night and then clinched a semi-final play-off spot against league champions Slough Jets thanks to an overtime winner.
Lennon said: “It was incredible and I must say as well, it wasn't just the players who were incredible. Our fans were insane on Sunday night. “It was just like a home game and the positivity, even before the game when we were three down, was exceptional.
It was just incredible and I was super happy. “The result said everything I know about the team, which is that they have this capability deep within them to do something special. It was the realisation of that on a really difficult night.
“I hope that they just maintain that belief in themselves and each other that they can do things that are exceptional because too many times through this season we've not believed in the ways that we should have. “It was everything I know about them and more but maybe something they didn't know about themselves, which is nice.” The Mos faced a couple of blows even before their quarter-final tie started.
They were unable to get the league to allow 19-year-old forward Louie White to feature, ruling that he hadn’t played enough games take part, dismissing Lennon’s reasoning after signing the player ahead of the league deadline from the USPHL Elite League. On the Thursday night, it also became apparent that senior netminder Brad Windebank wasn’t going to have shaken off an injury in time which meant 16-year-old rookie Nikolai Divall would be relied upon. Lennon had the option of signing an under-23 goalie from their own league or a youngster from below their level but in the end decided to put faith in their own young stopper - and he didn’t let them down.
Lennon said: “We learned in the week that we wouldn't receive any special dispensation for Louie White to play and that was super frustrating because he's a 19-year-old lad and he's desperate to play. We were desperate for him to play as well. “We were hopeful that Windy would be fit but he just didn't feel right.
We took the decision quite quickly on Thursday to take him out of practice and that we had to put full faith in young Nikolai. “He had had two starts a couple of weeks prior in the last two games of the season and had done well. We had every faith in that young man anyway and he didn't let us down at all in what were probably the two biggest games he'd ever had in his career.
“It was a hard one because we've got a duty of care to a player physically, but also emotionally. He's only 16 and it was a huge fixture for him to play in. “He's very stable so I didn't have a fear that he would be capable to handle any emotion.
If we're picking a young netminder, I'd pick my young netminder over any of them. “He was bang on it. I'm sure he was nervous but he didn't show it.
” The Mos had home advantage to start at the weekend but conceded first in the opening session and after a goalless second they conceded twice more in the third period to leave them with a massive task ahead. Lennon said: “We were all over them but we just could not score for love nor money. We had a lot of shots.
I think we out-shot them on the night. “What we didn't have was a lot of quality and we missed the centre of the ice. We didn't get into those dirty areas where you pick up scrappy goals.
They do a really good job at clogging the middle and that caused us no joy when it comes to that. “On top of that, their netiminder was fantastic and shut us out completely. “It was just a frustrating night but not a night that I was upset with the performance or the intensity that we played with.
“I thought it was actually generally quite good but we had a mammoth task to overturn the score.” The Mos had lost 9-1 on their last visit to the Devils’ rink in the league but this was a different tale. A goalless first period was in contrast to a thrilling second where the Mos went 2-0 up through James Laming and Tom Soar and kept that two-goal advantage as Ruskin Springer-Hughes and Aaron Connolly netted in between a couple of replies.
The Most trailed 5-4 on aggregate going into the third period but then conceded again as Solent’s player-coach Alex Murray struck. Lennon said: “I would imagine on their part, they were thinking, ‘right, the job's done here’. We just have to ride this one out’ but the guys just turned up a level.
” Connolly got one back and Richard Harris levelled the tie at 6-6 with a minute and a half left to play. “I think from that moment on we just had a feeling that it was going to be our night,” Lennon said. The tie went into overtime and three versus three.
Lennon said: “We had the momentum, the three-goal lead on the night and I fancied our skaters. “We've got some excellent skaters on our team that can really move the puck well. They did exactly that for the first two minutes and the chance popped to Regan O'Neill who duly obliged with a bit of a fan shot to start with but then he picked up the rebound and that was that.
” The Mos won 7-3 on the night, 7-6 on aggregate, and will play Slough Jets at home on Saturday (5.45pm) in the semi-finals ahead of a deciding match away on the Sunday. The winner heads to the play-off finals weekend in Sheffield the following week.
.
