Blackburn Hawks 3 Nottingham Lions 3

BLACKBURN Hawks threw away a two-goal lead last night as Nottingham Lions took a share of the spoils in this English Ice Hockey League Division One (North) clash at the Arena.

The Hawks fans responded to Bobby Haig's midweek plea to get behind the team and the player-coach was eager to pay tribute to the home supporters after the match.

"The fans were a great help," said Haig, "I'm just sorry we couldn't reward them with a win. To be honest we played very well, the luck just wasn't with us. The important thing is that having lost the lead we didn't lose the game."

Hawks opened the scoring in the first period through Mark Gabbitas. Nottingham equalissed but the home side raced ahead with goals from Dan Macriel and Haig.

However, a nail-biting final period saw the visitors pull one back with five minutes to go to set up a nervous finish. Then with just 16 seconds left on the clock Nottingham scored a third to stun Haig's young side.

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