Leeds Knights - How 'phenomenal' Sam Gospel is underpinning charge to NIHL National league title

A 5-2 home win over a Raiders team desperately fighting to secure a play-off spot, coupled with a 3-2 defeat for second-placed Milton Keynes Lightning - who were edged out with just 14 seconds to go by hosts Telford Tigers.

Nobody involved with the Knights will be taking anything for granted, of course, but with 11 regular season games remaining, their advantage over the Lightning now stands at eight points with a game in hand.

If you want to break it down to simple maths, seven more wins - or at least six and one overtime or shoot-out loss - will guarantee the NIHL National regular season championship trophy will remain in West Yorkshire for another year.

The come-from-behind win against Raiders came just under 24 hours after a dominant 8-0 road win at bottom team Bristol Pitbulls and extended the Knights’ current winning streak to six games.

In those six games, the Knights have conceded just five goals. As has been stated on numerous occasions by head coach Ryan Aldridge, the team’s defence - from front to back - has been the bedrock of their title challenge this time around.

Not surprisingly, he heard away from Elland Road Ice Arena a satisfied coach once again.

“I’m very happy with how we have done in these last four days,” said Aldridge, “I thought we got off to a slow start (against Raiders) but obviously there’s been a lot of ice time over the last four days.

“We didn’t get in until 3am on Sunday travelling back from Bristol, so it has been tough on the bodies and I’m just glad that we got all six points.

“The D have been outstanding all year for us. Obviously, Sam Gospel has been outstanding too - I think he could have played for eight or nine hours in Bristol and they probably still wouldn’t have scored - he was just phenomenal and in that kind of mood.

“But the D were good in front of him, too - we blocked a lot of shots in Bristol.”