THE Deeside Dragons earned their third straight win in the NIHL Laidler Conference as they comfortably dispatched a short-benched Blackburn Hawks side.

Simon Furnival and Dragons skipper James Parsons were instrumental in the success as the pair claimed five goals and five assists between them.

Deeside’s latest victory continues their current run of good form with the Flintshire club winning four of their last five games to propel themselves back into contention for the play-off places.

Reflecting on his team’s upturn in fortunes, Dragons boss Gary Shaw said: “We played really well against Blackburn and things have really improved since a team meeting we called a few weeks ago.

“We’re controlling the game much better now, we did it against Altrincham and Sheffield, and again against Blackburn.

“They worked hard and kept us out wide by boxing up in front of the net which made us play precisely with our passes.

“I would have liked a few more goals, but I’m equally pleased at how we controlled and man-managed the game. Hopefully we can do the same in our next game against Widnes.

It didn’t take long for Parsons to begin effecting the game as the skipper put the Dragons ahead inside two minutes after being picked out by Sam Plant.

Parsons then turned provider two minutes later as he helped the puck on to Simon Furnival who made no mistake in making it 2-0.

Matthew Wainwright then helped the Dragons captain get himself on the scoresheet for a second time as he fired past his former netminder teammate, Dominic Alexander Jolly, to put Deeside 3-0 up after eight minutes.

Despite relentless pressure on their net, the Hawks were then able to keep the Dragons at bay for the remainder of the first period, as well as for half of the second.

But eventually their stubborn resistance was broken, and the floodgates opened for a Dragons side who put Blackburn to the sword with four strikes in six minutes.

Furnival fired in his second of the game after receiving the puck from Chris Keating on the half hour mark, before Karl Bacon set up Charlie Spridgeon to make it 5-0 a little over a minute later.

Parsons and Furnival continued to dominate the game as the duo combined before working the puck to Keating who slammed an effort home.

Chris Jones completed the second period blitz as he scored Deeside’s seventh after being found by Radim Reznicek.

The Dragons picked up from where they left off in the final period as Parsons claimed the assist for a strike which completed Funival’s hat-trick, before the captain also helped Wainwright get on to the scoreboard with a strike which completed a 9-0 rout.

Deeside stay sixth in the Laidler Conference but are now level on points with the Telford Tigers in fifth and just three points off Altrincham who are fourth, with the Dragons having two games in hand on both of those sides.

Gary Shaw’s side now turn their attentions to Sunday’s trip to face last year’s champions Widnes Wild in a local derby as the Flintshire club seek their fourth straight win.

Elsewhere in the Laidler Conference, Altrincham recorded weekend victories over Blackburn (9-2) and Telford (6-5) respectively, while Widnes beat the current league leaders Bradford Bulldogs 5-2.