Leeds Knights aware of threat posed by Milton Keynes Lighting team playing without fear
THERE’S a lot to be said for being out of the title race so early in the season.
Ryan Aldridge believes his Leeds Knights team - who may just have seen their own title hopes reignited last Sunday - will face off against a Milton Keynes Lightning team this weekend playing without fear, free from the pressures and weight of expectation that will have been felt at the start of the 2025-26 NIHL National campaign.
Tim Wallace’s team prepare to welcome the Knights on Saturday sat seventh in the standings with their hopes of a first regular season crown in the current second-tier era long extinguished.
By contrast, the Knights handed themselves a lifeline last Sunday - albeit a thin one - in their pursuit of a fourth straight league title with their stunning come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win at Peterborough Phantoms.
The Knights head to Buckinghamshire today 11 points off leaders Swindon Wildcats with a game in hand and three meetings between the two still to come.
If results go their way in all four encounters, the gap becomes just three points. It ain’t over until it’s over, as somebody once said.
Of course, if Milton Keynes play to their full potential, life will be far from easy for the Knights this weekend, either on the road tonight or back in Leeds when the two resume hostilities on Sunday (4.15pm).
Throw in the added factor brought about by Mac Howlett’s recent switch from West Yorkshire and there is plenty to whet the appetite about the double-header.
Elsewhere, Leeds will be hoping to get help from elsewhere in the shape of an in-form Hull Seahawks, who head to Swindon buoyed by four wins from their last five games and a rise to sixth in the standings, one place above the Lightning.
They will also hope to have seen Basingstoke Bison doing them a similar favour when they hosted Swindon on Friday night.
About the threat posed by Milton Keynes this weekend, Aldridge said: “They’ve got nothing to lose and so have more freedom, which probably makes them more dangerous.
“They are obviously a good team. You look at their line-up - and I’ve been watching video on them this week - and they’ve got four solid lines. They are a deep line-up.
“And with Mac going in there, they are planning on rebuilding and will be a different team next year.
“They are playing very open, flowing hockey right now and with confidence - but we’ve won down there already this season, so we have to be confident going in.”
Coming up against Howlett for the first time since his departure earlier this month - ending three and a half successful seasons with the Knights which yielded five trophies - Aldridge said he was looking forward to seeing the 26-year-old left-handed winger again.
Since moving to Milton Keynes, Howlett has scored two goals and seven assists.
“It will be good to see him,” added Aldridge, who will have Balint Pakozdi in his line-up after his check-to-the-head penalty in the win at Peterborough has been downgraded to high sticking.
“These things often come back to kick the former team in the face, don’t they- I’m sure he’ll put one in the net.
“I think he’s with a team that plays his style more and it will be a good thing for him in the long run and we obviously wish him the best - although not this weekend. But it will be nice to see him.”
Previous visits to Milton Keynes for Leeds this season have produced mixed results, goals from Kieran Brown (2), Balint Pakozdi, Edgars Vengis and Oli Endicott giving them a 5-1 victory on October 11 before the Lightning gained revenge in December when they shut the Knights out in a 2-0 win – one of only two times Leeds have failed to score in a game this season.
The two meetings in Leeds have both gone the hosts’ way – a 6-2 win on October 19 followed by a 3-2 win just over a month later through strikes from Brown, Pakozdi and Endicott.