CARDIFF Rage provide new opposition for Medway's Invicta Dynamos ice hockey squad on their travels on Saturday, while the following evening the more familiar Basingstoke Buffalo head for the Gillingham Ice Bowl.

Unbeaten so far in their attempts to retain their English National Hockey League (South) title, player-coach Kev Parrish said: “Cardiff may be an unknown quantity but I have no doubt we can come away with a win.

“All we know about them is they will be pretty physical as they already have quite a few penalty minutes on the board and they lost close games against Bracknell and Basingstoke.

“Our game plan is the same as it was against Basingstoke. If they want to concern themselves with the rough stuff, we’ll keep our cool and strike on the powerplay.”

Mos have doubts over Andy Smith (groin), Anthony Lennon (knee) and AJ Smith (dead leg) going into a weekend Parrish describes as the “biggest in the league” so far.

He added: “Both games are going to be tough. Basingstoke have a new coach who seems to have shaken things up.

“Last season, they along with Oxford, were our closest challengers and their team is virtually the same, so we’re expecting it to be close.”