Leeds Knights come together and Jordan Buesa gets back in the game as Telford Tigers are tames

After 17 games without a goal, the Leeds Knights forward registered his second of the campaign. His first came in the opening night 8-5 win at Solway Sharks 78 days earlier.

Ever since that long road trip to and from Dumfries, it has been tough going for the 24-year-old, who played such a key role in Leeds’s second straight NIHL National title success last season when posting 65 points - including 30 goals - across 54 appearances.

The joyous reaction - both in the crowd and on the ice and on the bench among his team-mates - was evidence of how popular the Scottish winger is in West Yorkshire and, much like it did with captain Kieran Brown a few weeks ago, it can only be hoped that his 56th-minute strike in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Telford Tigers will spark a return to something like his 2023-24 form.

It may have been the simplest of finishes for Buesa - firing home a rebound after Finley Bradon’s initial shot had been saved by replacement goalie Matthew Bloor - but it will no doubt have released a whole heap of tension from the shoulders of the former Glasgow Clan player.

“A few guys have been struggling of late, Jordan hasn’t scored for a while and the bench erupted when he scored and it’s just nice to see the boys being there together,” said head coach Ryan Aldridge.

“He made a nice pass on Kieran’s goal and then he stepped up with that goal. It was huge for us. Just going to the net, good things happen and he did that tonight and it was a back-breaking goal and it sealed the game for us.”

For Aldridge, it was one of his team’s most impressive performances for some time.

The last time Telford were in the building - on November 3 - the Knights required a 54th minute winner from Matt Haywood to see off a dogged opponent.

Tom Watkins’s side were just that again during their latest visit but, in Aldridge’s eyes, the overdue “togetherness” of the home team, made their 16th win of the season fully-deserved.

“I’m proud of our guys tonight,” he beamed afterwards. “I think, performance-wise, we’ve been a little bit frustrated of late but, here, they played very mature, very positive and it was a really happy result.

“We’ve been doing a lot of talking in the last couple of days, as a group, as an organisation and I think they’ve responded to that and I thought they were brilliant.

“Togetherness is what was key - that is pretty much it in a nutshell. We know how good we can be when we stick to our system, our structure or whatever you want to call it - but (against Telford) they played with a togetherness and they supported each other.”

It was Innes Gallacher - with his fifth goal of the campaign - who got the ball rolling for the Knights in front of a 1,400-plus crowd, Matt Haywood driving into the right circle before squaring the puck towards goal where it eventually found its way to the 20-year-old Scottish forward for a fifth-minute opener.

Haywood was involved for the next goal, too, finding Brown down the right, who in turn found Howlett at the back post to fire past Brad Day at 10.02.

The Knights thought they had a third in the 16th minute when Bradon poked home from close range but it was ruled out by the officials after they determined it went in off his skate.

It wasn’t until the 36th minute that the next goal - officially - arrived, Howlett winning the race to the puck in the right corner, laying it off to Bissonnette behind the net from where he cleverly played it in front to a waiting Matt Barron to apply a simple finish.

In the 49th minute, Buesa showed determination to be first to his own rebound and, from off the left corner, played back to Brown who unleashed a rocket from the left circle to make it 4-0.

Sam Gospel looked like he was going to earn himself a deserved second shutout of the season after making a string of quality saves, but he was eventually beaten when his initial pad save off a Ryan Leese drive fell straight to Vladimir Luka, who had a simple tap-in to give the Tigers a consolation at 52.22.

But the last word fell to Buesa just over three minutes later, enough to see him mobbed by his team-mates in the corner and earning himself the team’s MVP award in the post-game presentations.