Blackburn Hawks 5 Trafford Metros 3 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Blackburn Hawks 5 Trafford Metros 3

8:48am Wednesday 20th January 2010 in

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GARY Buckman celebrated his appointment as Blackburn Hawks’ new head coach with a 5-3 win at home to Trafford Metros.

Gary took temporary charge of team affairs in mid-October after Mark Stokes was granted compassionate leave to return to Canada.

And after an impressive run of results, which included eight wins in 10 games, coupled with the death of Stokes’ mother, Buckman was offered the position on a permanent basis last week.

With the two teams tied on 11 points towards the foot of the table going into the game, Hawks knew the importance of picking up the two points.

They started strongly, taking the lead through Aaron Davies on a powerplay after six minutes and doubling their advantage just three minutes later with a goal from Rick Hughes.

Hawks appeared to be in total control until they took a penalty and Trafford pulled a goal back from the resulting face off.

Both sides traded chances as the first period progressed, but the netminders thwarted any opportunities that arose.

The second period followed a similar pattern to the first – with Hawks quickly regaining their two-goal advantage through Dave Meikle just four minutes in, before another powerplay opportunity, conceded at the midway point in the game, saw Trafford reduce the deficit to 3-2.

Hawks appeared to be cruising towards a comfortable victory when Davies bagged his second of the game four minutes into the final third, but the Metros set up a frantic finale when they made it a one-goal game for the third time with just 90 seconds left on the clock.

The visitors then pulled their netminder for the final minute in a bid to go for broke, but new signing Jared Owen used his experience to win possession of the puck at the face off and fired a shot the full length of the ice into the empty net for his first Hawks goal.

“It an impressive performance and a very good win,” said Buckman. “The lads worked hard for the full 60 minutes and were determined to get the points.

“I’ve not really given the head coach role much of a thought to be honest. It hasn’t really registered yet, although I’m sure it will once things go wrong!

“But touch wood we can keep this good form going.

“We knew that Trafford would be up for the points, because the two teams were so close, but we’ve been able to open up a game and we’ve now got a game in hand, so it’s definitely advantage us.”