Leeds Knights provide the perfect answer to any doubters against Milton Keynes Lightning

​Leeds Knights became the last NIHL National team to surrender their 100 per cent record on Saturday night when they went down 5-3 at Milton Keynes Lightning.

A little under 24 hours, the two teams faced off once again, this time at Elland Road Ice Arena. The Knights, clearly hurting from the previous night, romped to an emphatic 9-1 victory, enough to keep them top of the standings after six games. Just.

On a weekend of personal milestones, captain Kieran Brown came to the fore for his team, scoring a hat-trick on home ice to add to the goal he scored in Milton Keynes.

His assist on Josh Adkins’s opener on the road on Saturday brought him his 300th career point for the Knights, while his first in the reverse fixtures - a seventh-minute power play marker - brought him his 150th goal for the club.

That strike set the ball rolling on a memorable night for the Knights and their fans, the hosts finding themselves 3-0 ahead after 20 minutes through further strikes from Lewis Baldwin and Josh Adkins - who had scored twice the night before.

Brown added a second and the Knights’ fourth just after the halfway mark, before five more goals came in the third, Oli Endicott, Matt Barron, Matt Haywood, Mac Howlett and, finally, Brown’s third of the night, completing the romp, on a night that was blotted slightly by failing to keep a shutout when Cameron Hamill got the visitors on the board at 53.07.