DUANE WARD snatched a late equaliser to keep the Invicta Dynamos ice hockey team's play-off hopes alive with a 5-5 draw against Slough Jets at the Ice Bowl last night.

Having lost their opening game 6-2 at Milton Keynes Lightening on Saturday, it was important the Gillingham-based Dynamos took something from last night's game.

Although they ended up relying on a late equaliser, captain Phil Chard believes they could have taken maximum points. He said: "It was was a pleasing result in as much as Slough finished third in the league, but we should have won. We were 3-1 ahead but had an atrocious second period when they got it back to 3-3.

"We were the better team in the third period and really deserved to end up with more. We were all over them for two thirds of the game."

The match got off to an explosive start with goals for each team in the opening two minutes. Matt Sirman put Slough ahead after just 34 seconds, only for the Dynamos to level on the powerplay at 1.21 when Matt Beveridge beat visiting netminder Simon Smith.

The Dynamos built on this goal and were able to add two more through Michael Wales (7.05) and Ward (9.54) on a powerplay. But Slough rallied and, while Wales was serving a penalty for slashing, a Rob Coutts effort was deflected into the net to reduce the deficit on 12.29.

And it was not long before Slough were back on terms when another deflected shot, this Adam Bicknell, beat Matt Van Der Velden on 13.13. It was Slough's turn to edge in front early in the second period when man of the match Matt Towalski struck at 23.24 with an unassisted goal.

But Dynamos were determined to stay in contention and Sean Clement and Duane Ward both put good chances wide, while Carl Greenhous saw a shot well saved. Dynamos levelled in the third period on 46.41 when a powerful shot from Chard was tipped in by Wales.

As both teams began to tire, Slough got a controversial fifth after Jason Reilly scored despite being in the goalie's crease.

It looked as though the Dynamos were going to end up empty-handed but they managed to strike before the final buzzer when Ward rounded off a good move involving Matt Beveridge and Sean Clement on 58.17.

Dynamos found EPL runners-up Milton Keynes too strong on their own ice on Saturday and suffered a 6-2 defeat. Greg Randall put the home team ahead after 36 seconds and Gary Clarke doubled the advantage on 10.54.

Adam Smith gave the visitors hope when he pulled a goal back at 13.39 with assists going to Peter Korff and Jake French.

But Clarke restored his team's two-goal cushion just before the end of the first period on 19.44.

Again the Dynamos reduced the arrears when Wales scored from Ward and Matt Beveridge.

Despite the Dynamos continuing to give a good account of themselves, the home were able to hit three unanswered goals to record an emphatic win.

Alex Poole (26.04) scored before the end of the second period before Leigh Jamieson (57.27) and Randall (57.51) struck in the third.

Chard said: "We did ourselves proud and could have walked away with a 4-4 draw. We had a goal disallowed and were only 4-2 down before letting in two silly goals with three minutes left."

But he added: "The way the results have gone this group is still wide open going into next weekend."