Matt Barron nets hat-trick as Leeds Knights complete New Year's double over Sheffield Steeldogs

The 9-3 win at Ice Sheffield came on the back of a 5-1 triumph against the same opponents at Elland Road the previous evening and completed an impressive haul of 10 points from a possible 12 in the six games they have played in the last 10 days.

The Knights picked up from where they left off the night before on home ice when they went in front with just 37 seconds gone, Matt Barron winning a face-off in the Leeds zone which released Buesa own centre ice, from where he laid off to Kieran Brown who ripped his shot past Daniel Crowe an into his top left-hand corner.

With Jason Hewitt in the penalty box for boarding and Jonathan Phillips alongside him for unsportsmanlike conduct, the Knights then doubled their lead on the resulting 5-on-3 power play when Barron fired home after a next exchange with Buesa and Brown.

The Dogs quickly got back in the race through Jason Hewitt’s close-range finish when his initial shot cannoned back off Sam Gospel’s crossbar but the Knights restored their two-goal lead just over a minute later when Barron was quickest to react to a similar rebound off an effort from Brown at the other end.

The Dogs showed glimpses of reducing the deficit early in the second but Gospel stood solid, as did Crowe until Finn Bradon skilfully redirected Noah McMullin’s feed from the blue line to make it 4-1 at 27.45.

Just over two minutes later, Barron sealed his hat-trick in a man-of-the-match performance when he tipped in another McMullin feed in similar fashion.

In a frenetic spell of the game, the Steeldogs kept their hopes alive when Lee Haywood poked home a rebound at 31.15, only for the Knights to respond with just 62 more seconds having passed, Innes Gallacher grabbing his first for the club to make it 6-2.

The period ended with the Dogs striking back one more time when Phillips finished off a brisk power play move to beat Gospel at 32.59.

If the Steeldogs were to pull off a similar comeback to the one they achieved three days earlier against Telford, it was they who needed to score first once the teams had returned for the third.

They didn’t, the Knights going 7-3 ahead through a power play goal from Brown before piling on the agony for their hosts with further two short-handed strikes, the first from Buesa on a breakaway at 56.27 with Ethan Hehir firing home a rocket from a tight angle just over a minute later.

On Saturday, the Knights went back to joint-top of the standings courtesy of a combination of their win over the Steeldogs and a 5-3 defeat at Swindon Wildcats for nearest rivals, Milton Keynes Lightning.

The deadlock was broken at 4.59 when Mac Howlett fired home from the bottom of the right circle to beat Dimitri Zimozdra at his near post, the lead doubled just over two minutes later when Matt Haywood redirected a Howlett pass from off the left boards.

The Steeldogs were able to kill off a lengthy 5-on-3 early in the second but they found themselves further adrift soon after when Buesa found Matt Barron in the left circle from where he quickly laid off to Kieran Brown for a one-time finish at 27.53.

A breakout down the right from Buesa saw him lay off to Brown for a simple finish to make it 4-0 at 32.05, which is how it remained until the second interval.

Faint hope of a Steeldogs comeback arrived in the form of a close-range finish from Vladislavs Vulkanovs at 44.07, but that was quickly extinguished when a neat move involving Noah McMullin and Brown allowed Barron to fire into Zimozdra’s top left-hand corner just over three minutes later.