Leeds Knights suffer blow to NIHL National title hopes
JUST 24 hours on from experiencing the high of reaching the NIHL National Cup Final, Leeds Knights went through the low of a defeat which could have huge ramifications for their hopes of holding on to their league title.
Head coach Ryan Aldridge said his players were the architects of their own downfall in a defeat that leaves his team 10 points off leaders Swindon Wildcats – who play again on Sunday night at Romford Raiders.
Hope remains, however, in the fact that there are still 22 games remaining for the Knights in their regular season campaign.
The weekend had started in the best possible way for Leeds when a 3-0 win over Swindon in the second leg of their Cup semi-final secured a 6-4 aggregate win, meaning they will go on to defend their crown in the final against either Peterborough Phantoms or Sheffield Steeldogs.
It was Peterborough who were in town on Saturday night in the league and, just over halfway into their clash at Elland Road Ice Arena, all was seemingly rosy for the Knights, deservedly 2-0 ahead and well-placed for two points.
But a fault with one of the gates on the Peterborough bench led to a delay in the game, which resulted in the players taking an early second intermission, the remaining minutes being tagged on to the third period.
Within seconds of coming back out - the gate was not fixed adequately, leading to both teams using just one - the Phantoms were back in the game, Cameron Hough finding space in front to backhand home at 30.37.
Earlier, Balint Pakozdi had broken the deadlock at 15.20 with a well-worked goal before Kieran Brown tipped in from Lewis Baldwin to make it 2-0 just over three minutes into the second period.
But after Hough halved the deficit, it was a different game, the Phantoms going into a shortened second period break 3-2 ahead thanks to further strikes from Barnabas Sari and a second for Hough.
Brown missed a penalty shot attempt before Luke Ferrara made it 4-2 to the visitors on another breakaway effort at 54.37. The British forward sealed the win with an empty netter at 58.28 before Finley Bradon scored a consolation effort on the power play to make it 5-3.
“I thought we were good until the delayed break with the door, then we came out of that flat-footed, stopped competing, turned on each other and lost our way,” said Aldridge.
“They wanted it a bit more than us after the break. That break literally killed us, killed our momentum, killed our mentality - maybe thoughts were on other things but, yeah, it was a very frustrating one.”