EMIL SVEC found the perfect moment to make his mark when he fired Hull Seahawks to an overtime win against Leeds Knights and keep his team’s NIHL National play-off hopes alive.

Three times the Knights got ahead of their Yorkshire rivals in front of a packed Hull Ice Arena on Sunday evening, three times the hosts found a way back.

When nothing could separate them after 60 minutes, overtime arrived. With just over two minutes remaining, Knights’ captain Kieran Brown took a high-sticking penalty to hand Hull a power play.

It didn’t take the hosts long to make it count, the puck being fed to Svec by Johnny Corneil from the top of the left circle to the right, from where he fired home before Knights’ netminder Sam Gospel could scramble across in time.

As in Leeds the previous night when the Knights won with a late goal from Oli Endicott, the building erupted, only this time it was Hull fans celebrating, with the win seeing Hull draw level on points with Telford Tigers and Milton Keynes Lightning.

They remain bottom of Group B by virtue of an inferior goal difference, though, meaning to give themselves a chance of making it to the Final Four Weekend in Coventry on April for the first time in their history, they must win both games against Telford Tigers next weekend. Failure to do so is likely to mean a third successive exit at the group stage.

Leeds were good value for picking up another valuable point and are ahead of their three rivals by two points going into a weekend that brings back-to-back games against Milton Keynes.

Win one of those two games and they are home and dry.

NOT THIS TIME: Emil Svec comes close to scoring for Hull Seahawks against Leeds Knights on Sunday night. He would later score the overtime winner to seal a 4-3 victory at Hull Ice Arena. Picture: Kim Elliot/Seahawks Media

placeholder image — NOT THIS TIME: Emil Svec comes close to scoring for Hull Seahawks against Leeds Knights on Sunday night. He would later score the overtime winner to seal a 4-3 victory at Hull Ice Arena. Picture: Kim Elliot/Seahawks Media

As expected, the opening exchanges were fiery and dominated by penalties in what turned out to be a second pulsating derby encounter in as many nights.

Within two minutes Hull’s Bobby Chamberlain and Jordan Griffin dropped the gloves after the Leeds’ defenceman took exception to the Seahawks’ captain trying to jab the puck out of netminder Sam Gospel’s grasp.

It was honours even with neither player going down but it wasn’t long before the penalty box officials were opening the door, this time former Knights’ defenceman Dylan Hehir sent for a sit down for a tripping call.

Kieran Brown and Bow Neely both forced saves from Aleksanteri Heiskanen on the resulting power play before Jordan Stallard became the first Hull player to make Gospel work for his money when he fired into him from the left circle.

STRIKE ONE: Liam Peyton puts Leeds Knights ahead against Hull Seahawks on Sundayn night - but it was the hosts who eventually prevailed 4-3 in overtime in the Group B play-off clash. Picture courtesy of Leeds Knights Media.

Soon after, former team-mates Emil Svec and Owen Sobchak came to blows in front of the Knights bench in what was perhaps evidence of their love-hate relationship.

Oli Endicott fired high over Heiskanen’s net when dashing down the left side before it was time for another sit down, this time Hull’s Jason Hewitt and Leeds’ Sam Cooper coming to blows in front of the Knights net in the 10th minute.

It was while those two were sat down that the breakthrough came, Balint Pakozdi breaking down the right boards and squaring towards the goal where Liam Peyton was charging in to force the puck past Heiskanen from close-range at 11.17.

Matt Bissonnette forced Heiskanen to use his pads when he tried a wraparound after good work by Brown had took the puck below the goal-line.

GETTING AHEAD: Leeds Knights' players celebrate Jordan Griffin's second period strike to go 3-2 ahead against Hull Seahawks on Sunday night. Picture courtesy of Knights Media.

The best chance so far for Hull came in the 18th minute, but Stallard couldn’t quite get a clean connection with his shot and it bounced wide of the net and away to safety.

They came closer shortly after when Josh Hodgkinson’s lone-range effort through traffic was parried by Gospel into the path of Svec, again a cleaner connection was needed as Sobchak was able to block it away to safety as the goal came off its moorings.

After a slight delay for a plexiglass issue behind the Knights’ goal, Hewitt’s long range blast through traffic caused a mild panic in front of the Knights’ goal but they were able to go in 1-0 ahead into the first break.

Hull came out with more attacking intent at the start of the second, Svec first to test Gospel - for a second time with a redirect of Dylan Hehir’s long-range effort.

Chamberlain then tried his luck, Gospel smothering one and then seeing another go just wide after Jack Musil had found tll skipper in front from the left circle.

The pressure eventually paid off when Hull drew level, Lee Bonner driving down centre ice between two Knights’ defenceman before sliding the puck through Gospel’s legs to make it 1-1 at 28.20.

Brown found himself in the box on a hooking call just before the halfway mark but, on his exit, he was presented with a gift when Hodgkinson tried to play out of the Seahawks’ zone.

The puck went straight to Brown’s stick, he swiftly drove towards net and emulated Bonner’s finish from two minutes earlier to slide it under Heiskanen and make it 2-1 at 31.32.

It was short-lived though.

A face-off win by Bonner inn the left circle worked the puck back to Hewitt, who ripped one past the unsighted Gospel and into the bottom left-hand corner to drag the home team level again with 33.27 on the clock.

The next time the red light flickered, it was from an unexpected source, perhaps, for Leeds, Griffin finding himself below the Seahawks’ goal-line and squeezing the puck home in between Heiskanen and his right-hand post from close range at 35.21.

The third period was less than two minutes old when the Seahawks pulled level for a third time.

Musil managed to get the wrong side of former team-mate Sobchak and was found by Svec with a pinpoint pass before firing high into Gospel’s net.

At the other end, Finley Bradon’s backhanded attempt nearly eluded Heiskanen as Leeds threatened again and in the 48th minute Chamberlain looked certain to put Hull ahead when found alone at the back post only for Gospel to somehow scramble across his net and make a stunning glove save.

Not surprisingly, the last 10 minutes saw both sides struggle to create as many scoring chances, tiredness perhaps beginning to take over given the way they had gone toe-to-toe for the previous 50 minutes.

Overtime came, both sides created breakaways without converting until Brown found himself in the box to effectively put the Seahawks a man up for the the remaining two minutes. They only needed 29 seconds to create the opening for Svec to score a goal which keeps them alive going into the final group stage weekend.