Video - Leeds Chiefs coach Sam Zajac targets quick fix in time for big opening night

For the second time in three days, the NIHL National’s bottom-placed team came off second-best in miserable fashion.

On Sunday, they were hammered 11-1 at Bracknell Bees, while yesterday’s fourth and final visit of the season to Ice Sheffield saw them humbled 9-2 by their Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steeldogs.

With 25 games remaining, there is still enough time to make a push for the playoffs.

But many more results like in the past 72 hours and the Chiefs could find themselves out of the playoff picture before they even get chance to set foot inside their new Elland Road rink, which is scheduled to finally open its doors when hosting the Steeldogs on January 31.

The first 500 tickets released for that game sold out within 24 hours of going on sale with rink owners Planet Ice saying yesterday that more will be released.

And even though the rink will initially not be at the full, 2,000-plus billed capacity, Zajac wants to make sure those fans have something positive to cheer about, which means finding a way to turn their current run of poor form around - and quickly.

“These have been two really disappointing performances, and I think it shows that we’ve just ran out of gas this last couple of days,” said Zajac.

“I don’t know whether it is playing short for so long that has caught up with us or not being on the ice as much as other teams, but we’re second-best in every battle and we’re a step behind everyone we play at the minute - it’s frustrating.

“It is not an easy fix, it’s got to be a bit of a mental switch for guys - we’ve got to come ready to compete.

“The building is open in four weeks and we don’t want to go in there on the back of some terrible form - so we’ve got to find a way to get better.

“The only way we’re going to get out of it this by working hard. I’ve told the guys that we’re not good enough to beat teams in this league on talent and if we want to go off on our own and do our own individual thing during games and think we’re going to win that way, then we’re in for a long second half of the season.

“We’ve got to get back to basics as that is when we play our best hockey - when we move the puck quickly and let the puck do the work. We’re a north-south team and we need to get dialled back in quickly.”

As in Bracknell two days earlier, yesterday’s game was over as a contest in the first period.

Jan Danecek got things rolling for Ben Morgan’s team in the fifth minutebefore the impressive Alex Graham – on a two-way deal from Sheffield Steelers - doubled the advantage at 8.30.

It remained that way until just under three minutes were remaining in the period, but strikes from Charlie Thompson and James Spurr within 71 seconds of each other floored the Chiefs.

Any faint hopes Leeds may have entertained of a comeback were blown away when they conceded four power play goals in five second period minutes - before the halfway mark had been reached, Vladimir Luka (2), Danecek and Craig Elliott all finding the net.

Richard Bentham got the visitors on the board in the 31st minute when he back-handed past replacement netminder Curtis Warburton for a short-handed marker. The Chiefs then safely negotiated further penalty trouble until the second bus – including nearly two minutes of 5-on-3 .

A combination of playing for pride and the Steeldogs easing down somewhat meant the Chiefs came out of the third period even with their hosts.

They fell further behind when Elliott grabbed his second of the night at 51.29, but Haggar capped an impressive performance just over a minute later with a smart, close-range finish.