Leeds Knights v Swindon Wildcats: Ryan Aldridge confident champions can overturn first leg deficit
HAVING taken longer to get their hands on the NIHL National Cup trophy than any other silverware under Ryan Aldridge, Leeds Knights are certainly in no rush to relinquish their grip on it.
Having lost in the two-legged final against Peterborough Phantoms in 2023 - almost overcoming a 6-0 deficit from the first leg - the Knights fell short again 12 months later when Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks got the better of them at the semi-final stage.
Last year, though, the Knights finally ended their wait, overcoming a 5-4 first leg deficit at Romford Raiders to secure an 8-6 aggregate win on home ice in February.
If the Knights are to hold on to their Cup crown, it will naturally have to be done the hard way.
Should they overturn a one-goal deficit against Swindon Wildcats in the second leg of their semi-final tie at Elland Road tonight, they will then come up against either Peterborough or Sheffield Steeldogs in the final.
But, as the Knights have proved since lifting their first piece of silverware in the league and play-off double season of 2023-24, these are the sort of occasions they revel in.
At one stage last week in Swindon, the odds of the Knights making it through to the final looked slim as the Wildcats enjoyed a 4-1 lead after two periods.
But, despite missing key players such as import defenceman Sam Dunn - felled by a lower-body injury for a month - and teenagers Jonas Bennett and Edgars Vengis, both away on international duty with Great Britain Under-20s, the Knights staged a strong recovery in the third period, scoring two unanswered goals to leave them just one down ahead of Friday night’s concluding encounter.
The Wildcats have been the team to catch all season and will go into the second leg favourites to go through.
In the league, Leeds find themselves eight points adrift of the Wiltshire-based leaders in third place. It is a sizable gap but, given the two have to play each other three times and there will no doubt be other slip-ups along the way, not insurmountable.
But that fight is for another day, with Aldridge convinced that if his team remain true to themselves and harness the confidence and energy shown in last week’s third period display as well as that from the 4-1 league win in Swindon on November 22, they will get a chance to defend their title in the final.
“Essentially, we’ve got to be the best version of us if we want to be successful on Friday,” said Aldridge. “We didn’t lose anything last week, we’re just one down with 60 minutes of hockey still to play.
“You obviously can’t win everything all of the time, but we have a good chance to go on to the final and we want to keep this trophy in Leeds.
“These are not meant to be easy games, if we get through we know we’re going to face another really good team. But like this Friday, it won’t be anybody that we will be intimidated by.
“These are the games you’re supposed to want to play in, the games that you should have no problem getting up for.
“We’re two different hockey teams, us and Swindon – we’ve gone younger, they’ve gone deeper this season – we’ll see what we can get done on Friday.”