Dundalk Latvian Hawks withdrew from the competition last week due to the collapse of sponsorship deals, only to reverse the decision by the weekend after a rescue package was found.

It means Saturday's match between Flyers and Hawks WILL go ahead at Fife Ice Arena, and Dutiaume is anticipating facing one of his hardest opponents to date.

"I'm delighted the Hawks are back in," he said. "It would have been more than a hiccup had they withdrawn. To lose a team that's up in first place would have been very difficult to take.

"Now everything is back on track and we're hoping to get a great crowd in on Saturday. Hawks haven't lost a game in Scotland yet. That tells you they are a decent hockey club."

Dutiaume hopes his side's current injury crisis subsides in time for a difficult weekend.

"This run of injuries is the worst I've experienced as coach and as a player," said Dutiaume, who himself is suffering from a mouth abscess.

"I'm confident our team can absorb one or two injuries but we were missing seven of our main guys last weekend. It means I have to ask the players to really dig deep and find extra effort."

Players who missed either all or part of last weekend's action were Dutiame, Steven Lynch, Andy Samuel, Derek King, Jamie Wilson, Lewis Glasgow and Gavin Fleming.

Flyers coped in Braehaed on Saturday, winning a tight match 4-1 despite being outshot, but they were unable to repeat that in Dumfries on Sunday and lost 4-1.

"I wasn't furious at the guys for losing," Dutiaume explained. "In the circumstances it was a great effort.

"There's not many teams that could get by missing seven of their top guys. We're hoping we may get a few back for this weekend because we have to huge games."

Hawks visit on Saturday is followed by a tough trip to Whitley Bay in the Northern League on Sunday.