ICE HOCKEY: Telford Tigers 4, Hawks 6 - Hawks 7 Swindon Wildcats 5

From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Monday 8th Jan 1996.

BLACKBURN Hawks lost top spot in British Ice Hockey League Division One to Manchester Storm at the weekend, but kept the heat on the Nynex Arena outfit with a brace of magnificent victories.

Hawks avenged their only home defeats from earlier in the season by winning at Telford following up with a narrow triumph in a classic clash at home to Swindon.

The local side still have their Championship destiny firmly in their own hands with three games against Storm to come and the first of those meetings in Blackburn on January 21 is assuming titanic proportions.

Hawks tamed the Tigers 6-4 on Saturday after losing the first period 2-1. Oleg Sinkov gave the visitors an early lead but Tigers' hot-shot Claude Dumas struck twice to give the home side the lead. In-form Lee Cowmeadow replied with a double salvo to put Hawks ahead and Sinkov added the fourth as Hawks took the next period 3-1.

Sinkov completed another hat-trick to extend the margin to 5-3 early in the last, but after Bellanger pulled one back for Tigers John Haig, fresh back from a 10-minute penalty, clinched it for the visitors.

Scoresheet: Sinkov 3 + 0, Cowmeadow 2 + 0, Haig 1 + 2, Chartrand 0 + 5, Kummu 0 + 2, Bell 0 + 1.

It was a similarly close-fought affair on Sunday as a dogged Swindon outfit caught Hawks cold with a 13-second opener and refused to lie down.

Sinkov equalised with a brilliant effort, regaining his balance and composure after a trip to beat the keeper at the second attempt.

Swindon led briefly again, but inspirational player-coach Ryan Kummu chipped in an equaliser. He then put Hawks ahead for the first time with a quite breath- taking solo effort, leaving practically the entire Swindon side in his trail.

Sinkov looked to have made the margin comfortable with two more early in the second, but ex-Hawk Robin Davison netted to make the period score 2-1.

Most of the thrills came in the last section - Swindon trimmed Hawks' advantage to just one point then had an equaliser ruled out for a crease violation before blotting their copybook with Brad Rubachuk given a 10-minute penalty.

The Wildcats ace had to leave the game for a petulant display of dissent following a minor penalty and continued his infantile show from the sin-bin!

Rubachuk's indiscretion came just as Swindon appeared to have Hawks hanging on for dear life and the visitors actually recorded more shots on goal than Hawks in the game. But Hawks are just the team to exploit a numerical advantage, and with another Swindon player also sidelined, Sinkov took full toll to take his personal haul for the night to five before Davison claimed another late consolation. "I don't like to single out individuals after two great team performances but Oleg, with eight goals, has been quite outstanding this weekend," said manager Mike Cockayne.

"Swindon have some first-class forwards and I think Robin Davison perhaps had a point to prove," he added.

Scoresheet: Sinkov 5 + 0, Kummu 2 + 2, Chartrand 0 + 5, Bell 0 + 2, Haig 0 + 1, Pennycook 0 + 1.

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