HAWKS Premier League flame still flickers after a weekend of restored pride for the Blackburn ice hockey aces.

Realistically, it will take a remarkable and unlikely sequence of results to see Hawks come out on top of the play off group, but they go into the final weekend at least with the door of opportunity still ajar.

"We'll keep battling on and have been greatly encouraged by these last two performances" said manager Mike Cockayne.

"The spark and spirit was back and we were very close to chalking up a double," he added.

Premier League outfit Milton Keynes, the promotion favourites, have suffered only one defeat in their four play-off matches thus far.

And that came at the Arena on Saturday when Hawks, inspired by the heroics of netminder Horatio Schlinger, returned to something like their early season form.

Schlinger was sent off in a bruising clash with Guildford Flames last night when player-coach Ryan Kummu was again in the wars, this time having stitches in a jaw wound.

Oleg Sinkov was in sparkling form on Saturday scoring four times to force the Kings to surrender.

Hawks, cheered on by a crowd marginally up on the previous week, roared into a three goal lead.

And although the visitors pulled it back to 3-2 by the end of the first period, they were never able to get on level terms in a rousing contest.

Hawks took the second period 3-1 and shared the final countdown 2-2, but aside from Schlinger's netminding genius and Sinkov's outstanding goals, the night will be remembered for a quite sensational strike from defenceman Malcolm Bell.

With only seconds remaining and Keynes operating without a netminder, Bell, adjacent to his own goal line, lifted the puck over the heads of all the other players and punched the air with delight as it bounced once before flashing into an unguarded goal. Scoresheet: Steve Chartrand 2+2, Oleg Sinkov 4+1, Ryan Kummu 1+3, Malcolm Bell 1+0, John Haig 0+4.

Down at Guildford last night skipper John Haig scored twice early on as Hawks carried on the good work, but the Flames roared back to take a 3-2 advantage by the end of period one.

Hawks levelled things up by taking period two 3-2 and then edged in front in the final period only for Flames to score a late equaliser.

Bell received a game penalty for roughing and Schlinger was also sent the way of the dressing rooms after angry toe-to-toe with his opposite number.

Scoresheet: John Haig 3+1, Ryan Kummu 1+1, Jon Cotton 1+1, Steve Chartrand 1+1.

Milton Keynes beat Bracknell last night to move clear at the top of the league table which reads: Milton Keynes p4, 6 pts, Bracknell 4, 4, Guildford 4, 3, Hawks 4, 3.

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