Leeds Knights 2 Hull Seahawks 4: Delight for Davies as Seahawks enjoy first-ever competitive win over derby rivals

In a pulsating encounter at Elland Road Ice Arena, two goals from Finlay Ulrick, plus markers from Nathan Salem and Bobby Chamberlain were enough to take both points in a 4-2 win.

It means the Seahawks have now beaten all top three teams this season, already getting the better of both leaders Milton Keynes Lightning and third-placed Peterborough Phantoms twice.

They can match that feat when they take on Leeds for a second time in as many days on Saturday night in Hull (face-off 5.30pm).

The result moves Hull to within four points of Peterborough in the NIHL National standings with three games in hand. Another win on Saturday will move them to within four of Leeds.

“I’m so proud of the lads because I asked them to really buy in tonight, I’ve asked a lot of them but we really did work hard,” said Davies, back at the club he played for during the 2021-22 season.

“The reason I’ve signed the players that I have is that I knew we’d have to play with a bit of an identity and the identity that I wanted was what they produced tonight - hard, fast and hard to play against.

“I knew that if we did our jobs tonight that we could beat Leeds. I just knew we could because it’s the sort of game that our lads get up for and they have all done an unbelievable job tonight.”

By contrast, Davies’ opposite number, Ryan Aldridge said too many of his players were not good enough on the night and needed to produce a response in East Yorkshire on Saturday.

“I was disappointed with our start, disappointed with our first 20-25 minutes,” said the Knights boss. “I thought we were really sloppy in the D zone, falling all over the place.

“We weren’t hard on pucks, we weren’t hard in tough areas.

“We had a bit of a response (after the timeout), we changed the lines a little bit but I just felt that we may have had the chances to put the puck in the net but it just wasn’t happening for us, but I also don’t think that we deserved it either - the way some guys played tonight just wasn’t good enough.”

There was little to choose between the two teams in the opening 10 minutes, both goalies kept busy but neither the Knights’ Sam Gospel or Jordan McLaughlin in the away end were seriously tested.

The deadlock was broken in the 16th minute when good work by Emil Svec set up Finlay Ulrick - fresh from his first appearance for Sheffield Steelers on Wednesday night - to steer the puck home from close range.

Hull were making life difficult for their hosts, although Mac Howlett forced saves from McLaughlin when breaking clear on a couple of occasions as the game approached the halfway point.

But it was the second of those saves that had a direct impact at the other end, McLaughlin saving well from Howlett with the puck quickly being moved in the opposite direction, where it eventually found Nathan Salem clear in centre ice. He quickly and cleverly made room for himself to fire over Gospel’s blocker from the top of the right circle to make it 2-0 at 29.09.

Just over 20 more seconds had elapsed when the Knights found themselves in a bigger hole, a scramble in front of Gospel’s net resulting in Bobby Chamberlain poking home from the edge of the crease to make it 3-0 at 29.31.

That prompted Aldridge to call a timeout, a move which seemed to pay dividends when the Knights got themselves back in the game at 33.38, Howlett benefitting from a quick smart play from Bailey Conger before ripping one past McLaughlin from the top of the left circle to make it 3-1.

Less than three more minutes had passed when Conger got himself in the goal column to ensure that Hull would be unable to relax going into the second period break.

The Knights huffed and puffed during the third, hit the pipes twice and came up against a netminder in McLaughlin who was clearly determined to continue his recent good form.

Gospel was pulled with 71 seconds remaining, but it was all in vain, the only other goal coming when Ulrick won a chase to reach a bobbling puck first to tap home for his second of the night and to seal a memorable - and deserved - victory for the visitors.