Lee Valley Lions went down 6-3 to Invicta Mustangs on the road, despite only trailing by one goal going into the final period.

Joe Berry, Gus Zimmerman and Simon Jones were on the scoresheet for the Lions, who were missing top scorer Tom Hnilica.

It was the visiting Lions who made the better start to the game and they were a goal up by the 18th minute as Berry dispatched his eighth of the season with the assist coming from Zimmerman.

The Mustangs produced a quick turnaround, though, and were 2-1 barely a minute after Lions had taken the lead as Joseph Bliss and Harry Blake beat Steve Grout in the visiting goal.

This advantage was extended to three in the 24th minute – Blake converting his second of the game.

However, Zimmerman made sure that the Lions went into the final period only one goal behind as he made it 3-2 on the 29th minute, assisted by Elvis Timofejevs and Joe Miller.

Mustangs, though, raced further into the lead early in the final period, firstly as 16-year-old Gregor McAllan made it 4-2 in the 44th minute and four minutes later Bliss added his second to make it five.

Blake then completed his hat-trick to give the home side a seemingly unassailable 6-2 lead, but there was still some fight left in the Lions and they reduced the deficit 21 seconds later as Simon Jones scored his second of the season, assisted by Michael Jacobs.

The visitors looked for a way back into the game, launching attack after attack but were unable to beat Matthew Passmore in the Mustangs net.

Tempers then flared with only a minute remaining as Lions’ Dexter Crawford was dismissed for kneeing after a hit on McAllan, and then Crawford and Mustangs’ Connor Pike were given four penalty minutes each for roughing.

Lions were unable to get back into it, though, and the 6-3 scoreline sees them remain bottom of the division with just one win to their name.

They are next in action on Sunday, February 24, hitting the road again to visit midtable Peterborough Phantoms, with faceoff at 5.30pm.