BRACKNELL Bees will go into their massive Christmas home and away clashes this coming weekend with M4 rivals Swindon Wildcats on a high following their emphatic 9-2 win at Invicta Dynamos last Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

Admittedly, they caught their hosts on a good night as this was their only fixture of the weekend, while the depleted Dynamos must have been low on power following their tough match at Swindon on Saturday when they crashed 5-0.

Bracknell set up their fifth win of the season over Invicta with three goals inside the opening 13 minutes.

The rout began as early as the fifth minute when Josh Martin scored from a chance set up by Shaun Thompson. Two more goals followed in the 13th minute, first through Josh Martin with an assist from Stuart Mogg, who netted himself 39 seconds later.

Bees' domination of the opening 20 minutes was reflected in the shots column, 26-5.

The second was more even at 19-11, with Bees scoring twice just after the half-hour mark through Roman Malinik and James Galazzi in the space of 31 seconds, both being power-play goals, while Jake Stedman pulled one back for the hosts shortly afterwards.

During this period there had been a flare-up on the ice with Scott Spearing and Thompson getting involved with Ondrej Zosiak, who was thrown out the game, and Harrison Lillis.

With Bees continuing to dominate, Harvey Stead made it 6-1 on 47:16 and less than two minutes later he was involved in the move that led to Galazzi adding the seventh.

Malinik added two goals in as many minutes late in the game to complete his hat-trick with Louis Colvin netting Invicta's second in the final minute.

Czech ace Malinik now has 17 goals to his credit, the highest in the division.

Man of the match for the Bees was Vanya Antonov.

Head coach Doug Sheppard commented: "We had no training on the ice during the week so it was good to get a convincing win and was nice to see a few different guys scoring goals too.

"We played well as a team and hopefully we can carry that momentum into a big series against Swindon next weekend.”

Bees are away on Saturday (6.15 pushback) with the return at the Hive on Sunday (6pm).

Skipper Joe Baird and Ryan Sutton, who have both been sidelined due to injury in recent weeks, could return to the squad.

Bracknell Hornets player Ben Ealey-Newman has been suspended for four games after abusing a match official during the first period of the NIHL South 2 game at Invicta Mustangs on December 8. His ban starts this coming Saturday when sixth-placed Hornets visit Slough Jets who are third in the table.