Leeds Knights 3 Telford Tigers 5: No home comforts for Knights as losing run continues

Telford Tigers – the regular season league champions - were good value for their 5-3 win at Elland Road but, as all teams have found against the Knights this season, life was never comfortable.

While Telford can look ahead to the Final Four Weekend in Coventry, the Knights will prepare for one last game - in Slough - where they will bring the curtain down on their season against Bees IHC, desperate to break their play-offs duck by registering a first post-season win.

After a fairly even start, Telford went ahead with a simple play at 10.02 when Bayley Harewood’s shot from the left circle was parried by Sam Gospel, with Scott McKenzie quickest to react to tap home from the edge of the crease.

Barely a minute had elapsed before Adam Barnes fired home a rebound off Brad Day and that is how it looked like it would remain going into the first break until the Knights ran into penalty trouble.

Jordan Griffin took a hooking call but before he made it to the penalty box immediately dropped the gloves with Deakan Fielder. The Tigers D-man got the takedown with a couple of hefty blows before both players sat down to cool off for five minutes, the Tigers going on the powerplay due to the initial call on Griffin.

It was an advantage which increased when Cole Shudra took a slashing call and the Tigers quickly made it pay off. The resulting 5-on-3 was only 34 seconds when Jonathan Weaver fired through traffic and past Gospel at 19.28.

Shortly after, with the Knights back to four skaters, the lead extended to 3-1 with just one second of the first remaining, Vladimir Luka beating Gospel from distance.

Those final two minutes no doubt changed the team talk Knights’ head coach Ryan Aldridge was planning and, whatever he said, must have worked because, with just 45 seconds of the second period gone, the home side were back within one, Barnes’s effort rebounding off the back boards with Ethan Hehir getting to the puck first to force the puck home through Day’s pads

The Knights were giving as good as they got, although Gospel was the busier of the two netminders overall and it was from nothing that he was beaten for a fourth time at 33.02, Luka throwing a speculative effort on net that squeezed between the Knights goalie and his left-hand post.

Again the Knights started a period brightly when they halved the deficit early in the third, Harry Gulliver benefitting from a feed from down low by Matty Davies to produce a neat finish over Day’s shoulder at his near post from a tight angle at the bottom of the right circle with 41.15 on the clock.

Again, Telford were able to restore their two-goal lead, however, the puck falling kindly to Austin Mitchell-King to shoot past Gospel at 43.51 from the right circle.

That was how it stayed but another healthy home crowd stayed with their team throughh to the end, giving them a fitting standing ovation for one final time, recognition of the entertainment and commitment the team have provided in abundance over the last eight months.