Kieran Brown hits 100 as Leeds Knights see off Swindon Wildcats to edge closer to NIHL National crown

According to those present at The Link Centre on February 10, it was a thrilling, pulsating game, eventually edged by the Wildcats through a 48th-minute winner from Gael Luwbwele

When the two teams met again at Elland Road Ice Arena on Sunday night, it was another thrilling, pulsating game. The difference was there were 16 goals and this time it was the Knights who prevailed. Just.

For coaches Ryan Aldridge and long-time friend Aaron Nell, it was no doubt a bit of a nightmare evening at times. For the fans, anything but, particularly those in yellow and blue as they watched their team eventually emerge 9-7 victors.

Ultimately, all that mattered was that the Knights came out of their latest weekend with another four points in the bag, eight points clear of second-placed Milton Keynes Lightning and knowing another four wins from their remaining nine games will be enough.

The Knights head to Buckinghamshire on Saturday, March 16. Could they possibly lift a second successive regular season crown then?

Prior to that, the Knights have three teak tough games, starting Friday when they visit Swindon – no doubt eager to get even – before a double-header weekend against an in-form Hull Seahawks, who themselves took four points from the weekend with comprehensive wins over both Raiders and Peterborough Phantoms.

As three-game weekends in NIHL National go, it probably can’t get much tougher – particularly at this stage of the season with so much on the line.

The Knights were seriously tested on Sunday, as they will be every night until the title race is decided.

But, ultimately, it was a test – as always against Swindon, a feisty, physical one at times – that they passed, coming up against a roster always willing to raise their game when they face-off against long-time owner Steve Nell’s ‘other team’.

Again, it was a collective effort from the Knights – as it has been all season. Again, they were led from the front by their captain.

Last week, Kieran Brown reached the 50-goal mark for the season. On Sunday his three goals – including an oh-so cheeky ‘Michigan’ – took him, along with an assist, to the magical 100 point-mark for the season for a third year running in a Knights’ jersey.

According to NIHL Stats – the highly-regarded statistician who tirelessly does a job governing body England Ice Hockey have failed to deliver on over the last three years – the milestone makes Brown the only player in the EPL/NIHL modern era to amass 100 point and 50-goal seasons in three successive years.

For Aldridge, Brown’s contribution on Sunday came as no surprise.

“Kieran shows up in these games – he’s a big game player,” said Aldridge in his post-match interview. “We’ve talked about it before – for stretches, I feel it was the best he’d played all year, I thought he was phenomenal.

“In terms of the ‘Michigan’, we really needed a goal at that moment and to pull that off at that point in the game was just incredible.”

In what Aldridge described as the equivalent of a game of ping-pong’, there were others who delivered on the night, though.

Matt Barron got the ball rolling at 2.57 with Mac Howlett and Bow Neely finding the net to give the Knights a 3-0 lead inside 15 minutes.

But, as proved to be a theme all night, the Wildcats were back to within one by the time the first intermission came around through two strikes from Edgars Bebris.

Brown then popped up with his ‘Michigan’ at 23.16, starting off a run of NINE goals in a frantic second period.

Howlett and Lubwele traded goals to make it 5-4 just after the halfway point before Brown and Glenn Billing did the same.

Ethan Hehir and then Brown’s hat-trick marker saw the Knights go three clear again by 36.22 but Lubwele’s second of the night ensured there was to be no rest for the home side by the time the 40-minute mark was reached and everyone in the building could breathe and relax again.

Steve Whitfield’s long-range blast at 45.05 made it a one-goal game again but Matt Haywood added to his double in the 5-2 win at Solway the night before to make it 9-7. It proved to be a final blow from which the Wildcats couldn’t bounce back from.

At times, tempers boiled over, there were a number of scuffles throughout. But Aldridge expects nothing else when Leeds and Swindon come together.

“It was a physical game, but it was just two teams that wanted the points and two good teams going hard at it,” he added.

“It was like a game of ping pong, we’d go down and score, they’d go down and score. They are an offensive team, we’re an offensive team – it was end-to-end hockey.”