Chieftains ground out a hard-fought win at Invicta on Sunday to make it a four point weekend and move into fourth place in the Premier League with games in hand on most of the other teams.

Chieftains took the lead, slightly against the run of play, when Tero Sarkinierni and John Cotton pressured the Invicta defence, leaving David Heavey to fire a fine goal high past Dave Langford in the home net, the goal timed as 3.35.

On 6.40, Chieftains were caught out on a stretch of play leaving Elliott Andrews to fire the puck powerfully past Chad Macleod.

The second period was equally as end-to-end as the first and it had been a tribute to both goal keepers that the scores remained at 1-1.

Chieftains regained the lead on 40.41 when a shot by Glen Moorhouse was steered in by the impressive Heavey.

The only real nastiness in the game erupted at 47.46 when a minor scuffle ended with Dynamoes' Kyle Dolman and Chieftains' Andy Hannah being given 2+2+10 for roughing.

When the game restarted, Chieftains looked to have made it safe on 52.20 when Karl Rogers turned over a Dynamos attack and Sarkinierni found Heavey who superbly beat Langford to record his hat-trick and ensure his eventual man-of-the-match award.

Invicta forced forward and a swift break away saw Andrews pass well converted by Jamie Randall to set up a nail-biting final four minutes.

With just over a minute left, Invicta withdrew their goalie, opting for the extra skater, but on 59.06 the visitors found themselves with the puck and Sarkinierni scored into an empty net from the halfway line, the assists going to Jake French and Cotton.

With only 14 seconds left, Macleod made his only error in two nights of hockey, when Andy Martin prodded the puck from under his glove hand to leave the score 4-3 to Chieftains.

Compared with the previous night, it was not a vintage Chieftains' performance, but it was a hard working effort.

Chieftains are set for another tiring weekend with two away matches, as tomorrow (Saturday), they travel to Swindon Chill and on Sunday, visit basement dwellers Oxford Blades.

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