BLACKBURN Hawks were robbed of a point against Nottingham Lions for the second time this season, after a last-gasp equaliser was wrongly ruled out.

Trailing 3-2 with just seconds left on the clock, Hawks looked to have forced the puck over the line, but the referee refused to rule in the home side’s favour.

Hawks suffered a similar fate in their previous meeting with the Lions at the Arena back in September, when Chris Arnone’s disallowed strike cost the hosts a share of the spoils.

General manager Andy Slater said: “Nottingham were last year’s league winners and they are a good side.

“But we believe we’ve scored a perfectly legitimate goal in the dying seconds, which hasn’t been awarded and that’s the second time this has happened against them this season.

“We’ve pulled off the netminder and thrown on an extra attacker to try and force something from the game.

“There was a real skirmish in front of the net and my players are adamant that the puck has crossed the line, but the officials have ruled otherwise.”

With a fully fit squad to choose from, Hawks entered the encounter with renewed confidence following last weekend’s impressive performances against Kingston Jets and Sheffield.

But despite another inspired display from new netminder Matthew Michie, Hawks trailed 2-0 at the end of the first period.

Rick Bentham found the back of the net as Hawks trailed 3-1 going into the final third, and despite a second of the evening from Aaron Davies, Slater's side were just unable to salvage a point.

“We’re just not getting the rub of the green at the moment,” he added.

“I think we deserved something from the game – at least a draw – because we were all over them in the closing stages.

“We’ve got some league games coming up which I’m very confident we’ll win, so I think we’ll stave off the threat of relegation and gradually come away from that.

“We’re just not getting any lucky breaks against the top teams.

“We’re hitting posts, crossbars and netminders’ sticks, but we’ll keep plugging away and working hard.”