ICE HOCKEY: Oxford fall to deadly Invicta (From Bicester Advertiser)

ICE HOCKEY: Oxford fall to deadly Invicta

11:00am Thursday 17th January 2013 in Sport

OXFORD City Stars felt the wrath of the Invicta Dynamos in a crushing 15-1 defeat at Gillingham in their South Cup Group 2 clash.

Stars, who were without Alan Green, Dax Hedges, Darren Elliott, Joe Oliver and Andy Cox, were swept aside by their Division 1 opponents – who play a section above Oxford.

Stars youngsters Jono Bayliss and Michael Raff were penalised early on, and Invicta never looked back after Justin Noble opened the scoring.

Noble went on to score four as did Nicky Lewis, while Peter Vaisanen hit a hat-trick.

Joseph Bliss bagged a brace, with Callum Fowler and Arran Strawson completing Dynamos’ tally.

Stars were not as bad as the scoreline suggested, but were simply no match for Invicta’s power. Netminder Andy Peterson was given his first start in a Stars jersey and played a good first and third period, but struggled in the second when Ricky Young came on to replace him.

Stars' only goal came from James Clarke after he was set up by Joe Edwards following a good spell of Oxford pressure.

The heavy defeat leaves Stars in fourth place which, taking into account the opposition, was their pre-season goal when the competition started.