Leeds Chiefs draw blank but show potential for competing with the best

A 7-4 defeat on the road at Milton Keynes Lightning was followed by a 4-3 defeat at home to NIHL National champions-elect Telford Tigers and while it will have made for an immensely frustrating 48 hours for Zajac and his players, it was far from doom and gloom.

After seeing their playoff chances ended last weekend, the remainder of the season for the Chiefs’ focus is now all about looking ahead to the next campaign.

Zajac is using this weekend and the remaining six games to work out who he will want to bring back to Elland Road for 2020-21 – should they indeed want to return – with players being urged to show that they want to be around.

There will indeed be a strong core that will return for the club’s second season, with the current crop showing glimpses at times over the weekend of what could have been for the Chiefs, had many different circumstances been in their favour, instead of conspiring against them.

Zajac felt the first period against Telford at Elland Road amounted to his team’s best 20 minutes of the season, going in as they did, 2-1 to the good against the league leaders.

And while they were to be ultimately denied, Zajac was encouraged by his players’ ability to more than match the best the UK game’s second tier currently has to offer.

“That first period was the best 20 minutes we’ve played all season and that is the way we want this team to be playing all season,” said Zajac.

“When everyone is going, we play with speed, we move the puck quickly and we’re tough to play against. That really showed tonight, we had them on their heels for the whole of that first period and we were unfortunate to be up by just the one goal.

“But then it was like a bit Jekyll and Hyde in the second as we came out a bit flat. Credit to them more than anything, though, they turned up and they played their game and we struggled to handle them at times.

“Then, in the third, it really was anyone’s game, it was wide open and was a great game to be involved in.”

The Chiefs actually outshot Telford by 20-5 in the opening period, going ahead early through Lewis Houston at 1.11 and ending the period ahead after Lewis Baldwin’s 20th-minute power play strike eclipsed Scott McKenzie’s 14th-minute equaliser.

But three goals in just over six minutes towards the end of the second period knocked the Chiefs, McKenzie grabbing his hat-trick before Brandon Whistle made it 4-2 at 38.45.

But another power play strike – this time from the stick of defenceman Richard Bentham – made it a one-goal game again at 44.00 and despite an end-to-end frenetic finish, there was to be no equaliser for the home team.

The previous night in Milton Keynes was marred by an poorstart which saw the Chiefs 3-0 down inside seven minutes.

That deficit was increased to five goals before the halfway mark before Houston and Adam Barnes gave them hope with strikes before the 40 minutes was up.

That hope was extinguished, however, when the Lightning sailed into a 7-2 lead through third-period strikes from Harry Ferguson and Rio Grenell-Parke with his second, Houston and Baldwin grabbing consolation markers for the visitors inside the last 10 minutes.