Lancashire Hawks 2 Kingston Hawks 7

LEE COWMEADOW performed a soccer-style celebration to mark Lancashire Hawks first goal of the new ice hockey season.

For a returning hero pitched against his former club, Cowmeadow could be forgiven his obvious and understandable delight.

Problem was, the newly-named local lads were 5-0 down when Welshman Cowmeadow gave a large Arena crowd some overdue cheer midway through the second period.

The game, an Autumn Trophy opener, was as good as lost long before the opening goal of the new era.

Despite the disappointment of defeat, manager Mike Cockayne remained upbeat: "Our imports only arrived on Thursday and we are all still getting to know one another.

"It was always going to be patchy early on but we battled hard to stay in it and there were some encouraging signs."

Cockayne's troops were caught with their pants down in period one. The visiting Hawks were the bosses, hungry in possession and even hungrier when the Lancashire side had the puck - a clear difference in the determination stakes.

Ice hockey has always been a combination of skill and aggression. Skill without aggression will win nothing.

Luckless Colin Downie watched 25 shots crash in on his goal in the first 20 minutes (Hawks managed half-a-dozen in the same period) and the visitors may well have had more than a quartet of goals to show for their superiority. But thoughts that the home side would crumble failed to materialise. Indeed, there was a much much better display in period two - the only criticism being Hawks consistent failure to make extra men count when the visitors clocked up 12 penalty minutes. The third period too was fairly even, although there was never much danger of a fightback.

So what of the new boys?

Canadian forwards Adrian Lomonaco and Jeff Daniels, neither particularly big or physical, showed some neat control and the latter did manage to put his name to a goal, courtesy of great approach work by Tom Burridge.

Finnish defenceman Mika Pynnonen worked hard and seemed to grow in confidence as the match progressed. It's too early yet to form opinions. Downie was outstanding in goal and Cowmeadow and Burridge worked tirelessly to try to create openings.

But if Kingston are to be a guide to the opposition ahead then Hawks will need to toughen up - and quickly - if they are to compete successfully over the coming six months.

Period scores: 0-4, 1-1, 1-2. Scoresheet: Lee Cowmeadow 1+0, Jeff Daniels 1+2, Adrian Lomonaco 0+1, Tom Burridge 0+1.

Hawks have recruited teenage defenceman Michael Linsley, a product of Billingham, who played a handful of games with Castlereagh Knights last season.

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