Invicta Dynamos face two tough games this weekend as they embark on league and cup action.

The Mos have yet to take a top-side scalp this season and head coach Karl Lennon knows they will have to be performing at a high standard from the off if they are to claim any success this time around.

Lennon’s side are away to Streatham Redhawks in the Challenge Cup on Saturday and then back at home on Sunday with a big game against reigning champions Slough Jets in NIHL South Division 1.

Lennon said: “Our performance against Streatham last time out was very good. We have to take confidence from that but, again, we didn’t get the win.

“We’ve put ourselves in a very tricky position in that competition to do anything.

“On Sunday, at home against the league champions, it’s vital for us to put in a show.

“We are fully aware of their capabilities, on both parts. We’ve played them an awful lot over the last three or four years. Both are very different in the way that they play.

“We have to be on it from the moment we start next Saturday away against Streatham.”

The Mos lost 5-3 to Streatham in the Challenge Cup while the Jets beat the Mos 4-1 in the league and 7-3 in the cup.

Last Saturday, the Dyanmos were 6-3 winners against Solent Devils in NIHL South Division 1, in Gosport.

It was a cagey start as the opening period ended goalless

Lennon said: “We needed to get a really strong result away from home against a team that can cause anybody problems on their day. They’re very good in their own rink.

“We played a little bit conservatively first period. We were dogged and combative, and we were disciplined in our defence. I was relatively happy because we were in the game, away from home, against a very strong team at home.”

Quick goals in the second put them in charge as Luca Pascale, Mads Thune and Artjoms Kazaks - with his first for the Mos - put them 3-0 up.

The Devils called a timeout and responded well by scoring twice but Pascale and Thune netted again. Solent got one back in the third but Will Robinson’s empty-net finish completed the scoring.

“The second period was one of our better ones of the season,” said the coach.

“We were very good in the first five to 10 minutes. We got three goals up and I think we slipped into a habit of giving special teams more of an impact on the night. We gave up a power play. We had a power play ourselves, which we didn’t really make the most of.

“We then gave them a power play and it disrupted the flow of our game, which at that point in time had been quite free-flowing. Before we knew it, it was back to 3-2.

“We had to gather ourselves together. In a moment of genius from Luca Pascale, when we were on the penalty kill he beat a defender, then beat the goalie. We got another just before the break. At 5-2, we looked like we were going to be confident and dominant in that third period.

“I don’t think our third period was the best. If we were a little bit more on the front foot we probably could have even got a couple more.”

It was only the fourth game of the league season for the Mos, who are behind the others in the league in terms of games played.

Lennon said: “The schedule for us this season has been a bit chaotic. We had the pre-season followed by two-and-a-half weeks without a game at all. We then go into a league and cup first game, which was a lot of pressure on the line. We got the result there. Then we had, in between all of that, these Challenge Cup games where we’ve had to face all of the top teams. Then we’ve had weeks in between where we didn’t have any fixtures.

“Last weekend, we came off the back of a week off, just after we’d turned a performance around against Streatham, which looked really promising and ended in a loss. It killed our momentum and we looked flat [against Chelmsford, in a 9-3 loss].

“It’s been a difficult period to manage, if I’m honest, with all of what’s going on with the scheduling.”

On Sunday, the Mos were back playing in the Challenge Cup and suffered an overtime loss against Romford Buccaneers.

A frantic start saw them trail 3-1 after six minutes but they got another goal back going into the second period. Pascale scored again in the second but the Buccs led 4-3 heading into the third and it needed Callum Wilson’s strike to level it up. Buccs found the winner in overtime.