BLACKBURN Hawks overcame Nottingham Lions on 'enemy' territory to remain unbeaten in five games and guarantee an exciting climax to the end-of-season play-offs.

For the second time in a month, Bobby Haig's men came from behind to dent the Lions' pride.

On this occasion, though, they roared back from a first period reverse to inflict a heavy defeat in the Lions' den.

A brace from Chris Black and goals from Haig, Andy Sheffield and Adam Fuller more than cancelled out the opening strike from Nicky Balchin as the Hawks romped home 5-1.

Rivals Sheffield Scimitars beat Flintshire 4-2 to take a two-point lead at the head of the Northern group.

The Hawks travel to Yorkshire on Saturday for a crucial 'Roses' showdown knowing victory by three clear goals will see them through to the national final.

After the tightest of opening exchanges, Nottingham broke the deadlock at the end of the first session.

They scored with a power-play goal, following a highly disputed penalty against Neal Haworth for holding.

After the break, the Hawks came out blazing and scored two goals without reply to turn the tie around going into the final period.

In the 31st minute, player-coach Haig finished off good work from Adam Leaver, and two minutes later, Wayne Slater played in Black.

Into the third session, the Hawks continued to dominate the play. In the 50th minute, they extended their lead with a screaming 'blue-line' shot from defender Andy Sheffield, which left the Lions' net-minder Adam Wightman shell-shocked.

On 53 minutes, scorer turned provider as Sheffield split the Lions' defence to feed Fuller to turn the screw even more on a crumbling Nottingham team.

With time running out, Black joined forces with David Sheffield and Neal Haworth to score a power-play goal and set up a showdown with the Scimitars.

Coach Haig said: "I think the size of the rink and the fact it was very warm caught the guys out at first. We were just not firing on all cylinders in the first period.

"After that, we never gave them a look in and of course I'm delighted with the result. Now, we're all looking forward to the big shoot-out in Sheffield and you can bet we'll be going for it from the first whistle."

The big match at Sheffield has a 7.30 pm face-off and the in-form Hawks are hoping as many supporters as possible will cross the Pennines to roar them on.

NOTTINGHAM LIONS...1

BLACKBURN HAWKS...5