Leeds Knights 6 Milton Keynes Lightning 3: Knights even the score to stay in touch with NIHL National title rivals

A 4-1 defeat in Milton Keynes on Saturday night put extra pressure on the Knights coming back into their building to face-off against the same opponents just under 24 hours later.

But when it mattered, they delivered, running out 6-3 winners after a fiesty, bruising encounter, one which provided evidence that this year’ title race could very much go down to the wire.

The net result is that the Knights remain in second place behind the Lightning, two points adrift but - crucially - with three games in hand.

“Saturday was a good game but I don’t think we played our best by any stretch of the imagination but on SUnday we had to find a way to get a greasy win and we did,” said head coach Ryan Aldridge, following the win on home ice.

“It was a massive final 20 minutes for us. There was a bit of a melee and we gained momentum from that and I thought our boys were phenomenal in the third.”

The turning point seemed to be at the end of the second period with Leeds trailing 3-2 when there was a coming together in front of the benches with players spilling over the boards.

The net result was Leeds coming out for the third on a 5-on-3 power play, something they capitalised on when captain Kieran Brown doubled his tally to drag his team level.

Within two minutes or so, the Knights were ahead for the second time on the night when Jordan Buesa struck.

But the game could still have gone either way and it wasn’t until the 51st minute that Leeds were able to put some daylight between themselves and their opponents when Matt Haywood benefitted off good work from Bailey Conger to make it 5-3.

As the Lightning chased the game - much like Leeds did the night before - it was left to Brown to wrap up the points, and a hat-trick for himself, with an empty net strike.

Earlier, the Knights got off to the worst possible start when Milique Martelly fired the visitors ahead with just 2.27 on the clock.

But the Knights were soon level thanks to Oli Endicott scoring on the power play at 6.42, the teams stuck together until early in the second period when Brown opened his account following good work by Buesa and Endicott.

In another indication of how close these two teams are, Toms Rutkis levelled for the Lightning just under three minutes later at 25.23 before former Knights’ two-way forward Harry Gulliver put his current employers ahead for the first time at 35.53.

But, following such a lively end to the second, it was the Knights who emerged with more momentum, clearly helped by the initial 5-on-3 power play.

On his second intermission team talk, Aldridge said: “I let them have five minutes to talk about it (the melee in front of the benches) themselves and enjoy the moment and then we spoke about how we had to get back out there and put pressure on them and how we had to score on the 5-on-3 power play

“It meant a lot tonight. It was massive - after how we felt we played on Saturday we knew we needed to get those two points.”