Telford Tigers 3 Leeds Knights 5: Lead role taken on by Matt Bissonnette on tough night in Shropshire
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The 32-year-old forward enjoyed a four-point night with two goals and two assists in the Knights’ hard-fought 5-3 win at Telford Tigers.
Bissonnette’s line-mates Matt Haywood and Matt Barron also prospered, each grabbing a goal with captain Kieran Brown also getting on the scoresheet.
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Hide AdBut it was hard-going for the defending regular season champions, the points not truly secured until Haywood’s empty-net strike with just 41 seconds remaining.
The Knights had only taken the lead for a third time minutes earlier when top goal-scorer Barron registered his 14th of the season to make it 4-3.
As head coach Ryan Aldridge had predicted before the trip to Shropshire, it was no easy ride for the visitors against two-time league champions Telford, who found themselves rooted to the bottom of the early-season standings going into the game.
It was Bissonnette who broke the deadlock with his ninth of the season in the seventh minute, although the hosts were quickly level when Finley Howells beat Sam Gospel just 48 seconds later.
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Bissonnette doubled his tally just after the halfway mark and the Knights looked to have taken control of the game when Brown snapped a five-game goal-scoring drought to make it 3-1 at 38.19.
But the Tigers, recently bolstered by the arrival of Canadian duo Eric Hendersona nd David Thomson, then staged a rousing comeback early in the third period.
Latvian forward Edgars Landsbergs - formerly of Milton Keynes, Basingstoke Bison and, last season, Bristol Pitbulls and Berkshire Bees - halved the deficit when he beat Gospel at 44.23.
Then, with Oli Endicott in the penalty box on a boarding call, Tom Watkins’ team equalised through Harry Ferguson at 47.55.
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Hide AdChances came and went at both ends, but it was Barron who made it count when restoring the Knights’ lead at 55.17, Haywood ensuring both points came back to West Yorkshire when he fired home just seconds after Telford goalie Brad Day had been pulled.