Lancashire Hawks 3 Peterborough Pirates 8 ; Peterborough Pirates 6 Lancashire Hawks 3

HAWKS were stripped naked by the Pirates - washed up with nowhere to hide.

Their chances of festive cheer in ice hockey's Christmas Cup vanished at the hands of Peterborough.

Defeats on successive nights added up to disappointment - but it could have been so different.

Twenty minutes into the first meeting at the Arena on Saturday Hawks held a 3-1 advantage. But from the moment the Pirates snapped out of their slumber it was game set and match.

Hawks fans were lifted by an excellent early display - goals from Jeff Daniels, Adrian Lomonaco and Alan Hough promising a shock result.

But the Pirates weren't prepared to leave the booty behind and stormed back by winning a critical third period 0-4.

The visitors managed more than twice the number of goal attempts mustered by the Hawks, 25, 52. Period scores: 2-1, 1-3, 0-4.

Scoresheet: Jeff Daniels 1+0, Adrian Lomonaco 1+0, Alan Hough 1+1, Tim Dempsey 0+1, Neil Abel 0+1.

Last night in the return clash Hawks also held an early advantage and were level at 2-2 going into the final period.

But once again the fitness level of the Pirates proved a key element and, inspired by a hat-trick from Mark Ellis they claimed victory.

Period scores: 1-0, 1-2, 4-1.

Scoresheet: Mike Pynnonen 1+0, Jim Pennycook 0+2, Tim Dempsey 1+0, Simon Mills 0+1, Alan Hough 0+1, Bobby Haig 1+1, Billy Price 0+1.

Hawks were caught up in a motorway nightmare last night - heavy traffic on the M6 meant they were late arriving at Peterborough, the game facing off an hour and a half behind schedule at 8pm.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.