Leeds Knights quickly bounce back to help erase NIHL National Cup agony

Defeat against the Seahawks wasn’t anything new to the Knights, it was the comprehensive nature of the defeat across two legs - particularly the 5-1 defeat on home ice on Friday - that will have hurt.

But the Knights have previous, showing their ability to rebound from heavy setbacks - most notably last season when they lost 6-0 in the first leg of the Cup final at Peterborough Phantoms.

Astonishingly, they almost overhauled that deficit and were just one goal away from levelling the tie before the Phantoms scored a late empty-netter to secure an 8-6 aggregate win.

That performance and result in Peterborough proved to be a one-off in a glorious campaign for Ryan Aldridge’s team, who went on to pick up the two remaining pieces of silverware in the second tier when they lifted the league and play-off titles.

They find themselves in the same position now, their prospects of retaining the regular season crown strengthened by Saturday night’s 4-1 win at home to Raiders IHC.

Sean Easton’s team are desperately fighting to make the post-season and their determination to do so was clear for all to see on Saturday night, the Romford-based outfit trailing just 2-1 after 40 minutes.

But, in the end the Knights’ quality told once again, securing the two points that kept them five ahead of second-placed Milton Keynes Lightning - with two games in hand - and nine ahead of Swindon Wildcats in third, who have played a game more.

Those respective gaps may have closed by more come Monday morning, depending on how the Lightning and Wildcats fare on Sunday against Peterborough and Raiders respectively.

All Leeds can continue to do is take care of their own business, which is exactly what they did on Saturday, Jordan Buesa opening the hosts’ account with just over three minutes on the board.

Tjay Anderson levelled shortly before the end of the period and there was nothing to separate the two teams until late in the middle section when Matt Barron restored the Knights’ advantage with just 54 seconds remaining.

Two goals in the last 10 minutes killed off the visitors, captain Kieran Brown making it 3-1 at 53.54 before Finn Bradon - one of the most improved players this season - made it a three-goal lead just 61 seconds later.

It was important for the Knights to get over their Cup hurt. Next weekend brings road trips to Raiders and Swindon before hosting Telford Tigers on Sunday.