Hull Seahawks 0 Leeds Knights 5 - Ryan Aldridge gets perfect response to exact swift derby revenge

Having seen his team deservedly lose out 4-2 to Hull on home ice on Friday, Knights’ head coach Aldridge criticised some of his players for not being “good enough”.

There was no such blast from behind the visitors’ bench at Hull Ice Arena, the 5-0 margin of victory for Leeds in front of a near sell-out crowd fully merited.

“They know we needed a response tonight and we talked a bit before we left and again before the game about what we needed and we definitely got what we were looking for tonight,” said Aldridge, whose team host Telford Tigers on Boxing Day (face-off, 7.30pm).

“I know I probably ask a lot of my team and they sacrifice quite a bit off the ice and I think when we have back-to-back games we have an advantage over teams because I think we’re fitter than most other teams.

“A lot of their players logged a lot of ice the past couple of nights and I think that probably took its toll.

“But we did the little things right tonight, battling in the right areas, helping Gossy out down low - I felt that is what was missing last night.”

The Knights were as controlled and clinical in Hull as they were rattled and, at times, out-fought, the previous night in Leeds.

The ‘reaction’ Aldridge wanted came with just three minutes gone when Matt Barron - a hugely influential figure for the visitors’ all night - found Kieran Brown all alone in front of the net, from where he beat Jordan McLaughlin to break the deadlock while the Knights were shorthanded.

Special teams struck again - and again Barron was involved - when Leeds doubled their lead in the 11th minute, the Canadian centre linking with Jordan Buesa to set up Oli Endicott for a close-range finish.

Brown and Matty Haywood both had chances to increase the lead when close in, but McLaughlin was looking as sharp as he was in Leeds the previous evening.

He was beaten again, though, when the teams returned for the second period, but there was little he could do about it, Mac Howlett tearing down the middle while Leeds were short-handed and weaving his way past three Seahawks’ opponents before slotting the puck between the netminder’s legs at 24.42.

A little over two more minutes had elapsed before the Knights were celebrating again, a sumptuous move seeing Endicott in the right place at the right time to fire past McLaughlin after quick and clever build-up play from Brown and, yes, that man Barron (again).

For all his relentless work in helping his team-mates get on the scoresheet, Barron deservedly got himself on there when he worked himself a space in front of net before beating McLaughlin through his legs to make it 5-0 at 48.10.

Howlett almost beat McLaughlin again, only to see his effort cannon off the goalpost, while Gospel was hardly troubled at the other end, the Seahawks players finding life difficult all night - a far cry from the previous evening in Leeds.

While disappointed to have come off second-best in front of such a big, expectant crowd, Seahawks’ coach Matty Davies acknowledged that the previous night’s exertions in Leeds had probably taken its toll on some of his players.

“It’s disappointing,” said Davies. “I think last night took a lot out of us and that is why Leeds are where they are - because they can back it up.

“They are a young, fast-skating team and we need to play a certain way, with a certain intensity to win against a team like Leeds

“We are a team that is built to play hard and fast and be tough to play against - tonight we just didn’t have that intensity, that jump. And that happens, but when you get a crowd like we had, it’s harder to take.”