Invicta Dynamos lose out to Solent Devils in the NIHL South play-offs with controversial decisions from referee Thrower leaving head coach Karl Lennon puzzled

Invicta Dynamos’ head coach isn’t one for openly criticising officials, but he couldn’t keep silent after a frustrating weekend as their season ended in disappointment.

Karl Lennon watched on as a promising start to Mos’ NIHL Southern play-off challenge crumbled before his eyes with decisions made by referee Thrower proving costly in their Quarter-Final with Solent Devils.

The Mos led 2-0 after the early exchanges in Gillingham on Saturday before the official started to hand out penalties - including two five-minute majors - and a disputed goal as Solent got back in the tie, taking a 4-3 lead to their own rink.

Lennon felt confident about turning it around but they were always up against it and Solent won 7-1, 11-4 on aggregate.

“I don’t feel we had a fair shake of the games both days,” admitted coach Lennon.

“I think the officials really influenced the results massively. I don’t want it to sound like sour grapes but it honestly felt like that.

“We played really well on Saturday, we were excellent in the first period, they got a goal, a bit of a freakish goal (for 2-1), that we would want back for sure, out of nothing really, but I felt we were incredibly dominant.”

On an incident-filled night, Solent lost veteran D-man Calumn Perella-Fox in the warm-up after a stray puck hit him in the face, leaving him in A&E for the night - eventually getting stitched up at about 10am the next day.

Goals from Mads Thune and Ruskin Springer-Hughes put the Mos in charge.

Solent levelled for 2-2, with a goal given that many felt didn’t even go in, and there was a drama at the ‘bar end’ of the ice when Oliver Bronnimann hit the boards with force. By the time order was restored, two five-minute penalties were handed to the Mos as a