Leeds Knights show ability to bounce back once again and claim ultimate prize of NIHL National league title

All season the Knights have set the pace in NIHL National and while there has been the occasional wobble, they have always managed to steer their campaign quickly back on track.

Many followers of the league were looking forward to a final weekend of the regular season double-header against long-time title rivals Milton Keynes Lightning, the two having gone toe-to-toe for much of the campaign.

It would of course have been a mouth-watering climax to the season if everything had still been riding on those two games.

In the end, those encounters won’t matter, the Knights clinching the title in some comfort on Sunday night with four games to spare, courtesy of their 4-2 win at Telford Tigers and a 5-3 defeat on the road for the Lightning.

Those celebrations in Shropshire were of course a stark contrast to the mood on the way home from Cambridgeshire on Friday night after the Knights had been humbled 6-0 by Peterborough Phantoms in the first leg of the National Cup final.

The second leg of that comes this Friday at Elland Road Ice Arena and while the size of the task in front of them is mammoth, you wouldn’t put it past them going all out to make it a double triumph.

Then of course, there are the play-offs. But let’s not get greedy.

Unlike most other hockey-playing nations where the play-offs are king, in the UK it is all about the regular season crown, from the Elite League down and the Knights have got their hands on the one everyone wants.

They have dazzled, they have bamboozled and yes, occasionally, they have frustrated at times. But, always, they have been entertaining.

With a roster boasting an average age of just under 22, some felt the Knights were lacking the requisite experience to see the job through.

But some canny additions by head coach Ryan Aldridge last summer, adding to a team benefitting from a tough first campaign in the second tier, proved the ideal combination.

The likes of Sam Gospel, Sam Zajac, Matt Haywood and import forward Grant Cooper provided the nous needed to nurture the younger members of the team flying around them on the ice.

Three players posting over 100 points also helps, Kieran Brown out in front like last season, with Cole Shudra and Matt Haywood also reaching three figures.

There was a fear that Friday’s hammering in Peterborough would derail the Knights’ league campaign. Far from it.

A home game against a Swindon Wildcats team who they had lost 2-1 against after a shootout the previous weekend was never the easiest proposition but, like before this season when the Knights have suffered a defeat or two, they responded positively, even though they had to come from behind.

When Tomasz Malasinski made it 2-0 to the visitors at 26.09 on Saturday night some among the home crowd probably feared the worst.

But, as they have done on so many occasions this season, Leeds scored a bunch of goals in quick succession - Zach Brooks, Haywood and Shudra all scoring within four minutes of each other to snatch the lead back, before Brown sealed the points with two third-period strikes, the second an empty-netter.

Again on Sunday in Telford, it wasn’t made easy for the Knights, tied at 2-2 just before the halfway mark thanks to two goals from the stick of Haywood

But after Brown put them ahead for the first time on the night, there was only one winner, Haywood sealing the points with his hat-trick strike early in the third.

Just over 20 minutes later, the celebrations could truly begin.