Gary Buckman hopes it will be third time lucky when Blackburn Hawks entertain Whitley Warriors this weekend.

The local ice-hockey aces have suffered two narrow defeats to the established North East side this season, but Buckman insists that confidence is high in the Hawks camp after leading his side to seven wins in their last eight games.

“Hopefully it won’t be a repeat of our last league meeting, which Whitley won 5-3,” said the Hawks’ head coach.

“Our lads hadn’t trained for three weeks in the build up to that game and so were naturally a little bit rusty.

“Whitley on the other hand had played one or two games during that period and so had that greater match sharpness.

“However, the lads are certainly up for this time. They’ve trained hard all week and are confident of claiming the two points.”

Buckman hopes to have a fully fit squad at his disposal, with Craig Rogers expected to have recovered from a sickness bug in time for tomorrow night (face-off 5.45pm).