Leeds Knights bounce back by taking down NIHL National leaders Swindon Wildcats
LEEDS KNIGHTS bounced back from back-to-back defeats by putting NIHL National leaders Swindon Wildcats to the sword on Friday night.
They were forced to do it the hard way, coming from 2-0 down to run out deserved 6-3 winners at The Castle against the team who are expected to inherit the regular season league crown off them in the coming weeks.
The result leaves Leeds in third, 13 points adrift of Swindon with just 13 games remaining and a game in hand. It took them to within four points of second-placed Sheffield Steeldogs ahead of Saturday night’s derby encounter between the two at Ice Sheffield (7pm).
Leeds, missing defencemen Sam Cooper and Jonas Bennett , along with long-term injured forwards Innes Gallacher and Arturs Mickevics, went into the game having lost the previous weekend in Swindon and at Peterborough Phantoms.
In a competitive first period, it was Swindon who took the lead when Logan vande Meerakker rounded Sam Dunn down the right before finding a way past Sam Gospel from a tight angle at 11.02.
The home crowd were quiet again just over three minutes later when Reed Sayers cut in from the left and forced the puck home from close range.
That prompted a timeout to be called by Knights’ head coach Ryan Aldridge but it looked like the Knights would go into the first intermission trailing until a crazy 22-second spell when they pulled themselves level through two Owen Sobchak strikes.
His first came when his initial shot cannoned off the post and bounced over the line off the back of Wildcats’ netminder Renny Marr at 18.48.
The equaliser, in the very next shift, came about courtesy of a piece of magic from Kieran Brown – who registered his 600th point for the team on the night – when he drove into the Wildcats zone before leaving his man for dead in the right circle and showing quick hands to create space for a lay-off to Sobchak to fire home at the back post.
The two combined again just 35 seconds into the second period when Brown tipped in from Sobchak’s long-range blast to give the Knights the lead for the first time.
The same duo were involved when the Knights doubled their lead shortly before the end of the period, Sam Dunn breaking up play on the edge of the Knights’ zone, finding Sobchak who in turn found Brown, whose shot was parried by Marr into the path of Dunn who forced the puck home from close range.
The biggest cheer of the night came at 46.32 when Bailey Perre opened his account for the season when his long-range effort through traffic eluded Marr.
Swindon briefly threatened when player-coach Aaron Nell tapped home a rebound on the power play at 56.42 but an empty net strike from Oli Endicott less than two minutes later sealed a deserved win for Leeds.