Bálint Pákozdi happy to help Leeds Knights maintain that winning feeling
WHEN making the decision to join Leeds Knights last summer, Bálint Pákozdi believed he was joining a team with a winning culture.
Prior to his arrival, the Knights had won three NIHL National league titles, a play-off crown and, finally, just a couple of months before the Hungarian-born forward’s signing was announced in West Yorkshire, a National Cup.
During the 2025-26 campaign that followed, both the league and Cup ended up in the hands of other teams, Pákozdi’s frustration no doubt heightened when it came to watching former club Swindon Wildcats lift a regular season title trophy that Leeds had almost come to regard as their own in previous years.
Last Sunday, with less than five minutes of the NIHL National play-off final remaining, Leeds found themselves trailing Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks 3-2.
Pákozdi could have been forgiven for thinking his luck was out and that his ambition of maintaining a winning streak alive in Leeds was all but over.
But, a pinpoint pass from Pákozdi to team-mate Edgars Vengis produced an equalising goal.
Just over a minute later, it was Pákozdi again who teed up the go-ahead goal, this time laying the puck on a plate for Liam Peyton to fire past Finnish netminder Aleksanteri Heiskanen and make it 4-3.
An empty-net strike in the closing moments from captain Kieran Brown followed to cap a remarkable comeback from the Knights to maintain their winning habit.
There was understandable relief for Pákozdi having avoided ending his first season at Elland Road Ice Arena empty-handed, but also a feeling of justification at having made the move in the first place as well as having been part of a Knights team which had shown remarkable resilience throughout a testing campaign.
“We’ll be back stronger next year and we’ll figure out the league but, for now, this is one we have got and it is something we can be proud of,” said 26-year-old Pákozdi.
“This is definitely something we can look back on and be happy about because after everything we’ve gone through this season, we’ve got a trophy.”
One of the reasons Pákozdi was so keen to try his luck in Yorkshire was head coach Ryan Aldridge, somebody he had first worked with in Swindon between 2013-17 when the Knights’ boss was in charge there.
To help Aldridge keep up his winning streak behind the bench at Leeds was another bonus for Pákozdi.
“You have to give massive credit to Ryan, too,” said Pákozdi, who ended the season with 18 goals and 41 assists in 59 league Cup and play-off games for Leeds.
“I don’t know if it is three, four or five years he has been here now but he has won something every year and I am just happy that we could keep that streak going.
“I know we didn’t win the league for the fourth year running but, just for Rye, he does an unbelievable job up here and so just to get him a win and make sure that his trophy run keeps going is great.
“And for someone that’s coming in, that is kind of what you want to be doing. It’s a winning culture and you just want to put your body on the line because Leeds is a winning culture, Leeds wins trophies and we had to win in Coventry to keep that record going.”