The only way is up for Leeds Chiefs as losing streak sees them sink to the bottom

BACK ON TARGET: Radek Meidl ended his short scoring drought with a third-period strike against Swindon Wildcats. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

THE result may still have been as disappointing but Sam Zajac got the response he was looking for from his Leeds Chiefs team on Sunday night.

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Their commitment to the cause was visible on the ice in Widnes in the 4-1 defeat to league leaders Swindon Wildcats, a total contrast – as far as the Chiefs’ player-coach was concerned – to the previous evening when they fell to a disheartening 6-2 defeat at Hull Pirates.

BACK TO BASICS: Leeds Chiefs' player-coach Sam Zajac. Picture courtesy of Steve Brodie.

By contrast, the Chiefs are back at the bottom of the standings after a four-point weekend for Milton Keynes Lightning leaves the West Yorkshire club three points adrift of the playoff places.

Ultimately, it was the 39th minute where the game was decided when the Chiefs conceded two goals to leave them 3-0 down.

Radek Meidl found his scoring touch again to register his eighth goal of the season and offer some faint hope for the home side in the 49th minute, but a strike from Luc Johnson just under four minutes later put paid to any comeback bid.

The Chiefs had fallen behind at 11.44 to an Edgars Bebris effort but kept themselves in the hunt and with Sam Gospel back in between the pipes having been pulled the night before in Hull after conceding four in the first period.

SOLID: Leeds goalie Sam Gospel turned away 41 of 45 shots in the 4-1 defeat to Swindon Wildcats. Picture courtesy of Steve Brodie.

He again proved why he is rated by so many people as the league’s No 1 goalie, but was powerless to prevent Swindon gaining that crucial advantage late in the second, Chris Jones’ effort at 38.12 quickly followed by a Sam Godfrey strike.

Regardless of the result, Zajac cut a far happier figure on the bus home to Leeds as thoughts turned to next weekend’s double-header with Sheffield Steeldogs.

“Basically it was all about going back to basics, I told the guys that we needed a response as Saturday night in Hull was unacceptable and I think for the vast majority of the night we got that response,” said Zajac.

“From the off we pressured all over the ice, we were winning battles, we were physical we were fast - pretty much everything we weren’t on Saturday, we were tonight.

“We were playing the top team in the league and they have won 10 in a row now and while our best tonight wasn’t good enough, for the vast majority of the game, we were right up there with them.”

Zajac admitted that Swindon's quickfire double near the end of the second period was the night’s big turning point.

“If we’d gone in at the start of the third just 1-0 down it is probably a completely different game coming out in the third, nerves might have come into it, anything might have happened,” he added. “But they are clinical and that is what the difference was. We had some good chances but we just weren’t quite as clinical as they were.”

“We were night and day compared to Saturday in Hull. We were second best all over the ice and against Swindon we competed for long, long stretches of the game so I got the response I was after, it was definitely good to see.”