Haringey Huskies battled hard to land their third straight victory of the season as they just held on for a 6-5 victory against Invicta Mustangs.

It was another tight win in a high scoring game for the Alexandra Palace-based outfit and another hat-trick for assistant captain Stephen Woodford at the Silverblades ice rink in Gillingham on Saturday.

The Huskies went into the match missing several players and had to deep dig to pick up the points.

After the hectic opening salvos, Haringey took the lead in the seventh minute with Woodford able to tuck the puck home at the near post as he emerged from behind the net.

Both netminders were busy throughout with the Huskies David Wride producing a great smothering save to deny Thomas Dennis on the doorstep.

His opposite number Matthew Passmore then denied both Daniel Clayton and Ashlee Cave from close range to keep the score down to 1-0 by the end of the period.

The visitors doubled their lead right at the start of the second session when Clayton’s shot squirmed through Passmore and Perry Whitlock was on hand to smash the puck home.

Mustangs responded immediately when Kwame Holt got clear and back-handed a shot into the top corner.

Two quick goals in the 33rd minute saw Haringey build up a 4-1 lead.

Some tidy passing in front of goal saw Woodford score from Lee Mercer’s assist and Bryn Griffiths’ breakout pass put Clayton through and his shot was converted by Cave on the rebound.

A late powerplay goal by James Laming gave Invicta some hope going into the final period.

At the start of the session, another powerplay goal for Invicta brought it back to 4-3, Anthony Baskerville scoring with a powerful shot.

A contentious equaliser followed in the 48th minute scored by Jake Luton and the momentum seemed to have swung in the hosts’ favour.

However, they coughed up the puck in their own zone to Woodford who converted to complete his hat-trick in the 50th minute.

Once again, Mustangs equalized right away with Laming adding his second, only for Huskies to reply right away with Clayton scoring from Sam Park’s cross ice pass.

The last few minutes saw Huskies survive a few scrambles in front of goal, but Wride stood firm to register the win.

Mustangs scoring: James Laming 2+1, Jake Luton 1+2, Kwame Holt 1+0, Anthony Baskerville 1+0, Michael Stokes 0+3, Thomas Dennis 0+2

Huskies scoring: Stephen Woodford 3+0, Daniel Clayton 1+3, Perry Whitlock 1+0, Ashlee Cave 1+0, Lee Mercer 0+1, Bryn Griffiths 0+1, Sam Park 0+1, Ryan Payne 0+1