Leeds Knights blast their way into NIHL National Cup final as Swindon Wildcats are tamed at The Castle

LEEDS KNIGHTS’ coach Ryan Aldridge hailed his team’s “best performance of the season” as they blasted their way into the NIHL National Cup Final.

Trailing Swindon Wildcats 4-3 after the first leg, the Knights shut out the NIHL National league leaders to win 3-0 on the night.

YOU BEAUTY: Leeds Knights players celebrate Matt Bissonnette's third-period strike which put them 5-4 ahead overall in their NIHL National Cup semi-final against Swindon Wildcats on Friday night. Picture: Kev Bland/Knights Media.

placeholder image — YOU BEAUTY: Leeds Knights players celebrate Matt Bissonnette's third-period strike which put them 5-4 ahead overall in their NIHL National Cup semi-final against Swindon Wildcats on Friday night. Picture: Kev Bland/Knights Media.

Goals from Mac Howlett, Matt Bissonnette and Oli Endicott secured a 6-4 aggregate win for the reigning Cup holdersoin a memorable night at Elland Road Ice Arena where a raucous home crowd backed on the Knights throughout.

“I thought that was the best 60 minutes we have played all season – by a mile,” said a delighted Aldridge afterwards.

“We were brilliant from start to finish. They had a little bit of pushback at the start of the third and we got a little bit flustered and made some soft plays but, on the whole, I felt we were the better team and deserved that win.”

It wasn’t a simple process, however, as the Wildcats refused to go quietly, Howlett’s opener not coming until just after the halfway mark when he cut in from the left and went five-hole on Swindon goalie Renny Marr.

The game remained tioed on aggregate until a moment of inspiration from Bissonnette, the veteran playmaker stealing the puck mid-ice before setting himself up to blast through a screen of two players from the top of the right circle and into Marr’s top right-hand corner at 51.34.

But it was still only a slender lead and with Swindon packing the quality that has seen them lead the league standings for the vast majority of the season, there was no opportunity for the Knights to ease up.

STRIKE ONE: Mac Howlett - out for most of the season with illness - scored Leeds Knights' first goal of the night against Swindon. Picture: Kev Bland/Knights Media.

Thanks to Sam Gospel in net and some dogged defence, the Wildcats were frustrated in their attempts to hit back – as they were all night – their hopes of a comeback taking a further hit when a three-on-two-break resulted in Endicott squeezing the puck through Marr and over the line from eight yards out with just under four minutes remaining.

“It was a beautiful goal,” added Aldridge when asked about Bissonnette’s pivotal strike. “An unbelievable goal and I think just the way that goal went in broke the back of them and we had the fans behind us all night and we talked about them being our seventh man and they were.”