Leeds Knights fall short of NIHL National treble as Ryan Aldridge ponders summer of change

And the head coach said he was preparing for a summer “rebuild” with a number of players expected to move on, his recruitment options altered somewhat by the weekend’s announcement by the league that teams will be able to ice four imports instead of three.

Having gone behind to a seventh-minute Jordan Cownie strike in Coventry on Saturday night, the Knights were forever chasing the game and required a stunning strike from captain Kieran Brown with just nine seconds of regulation left to take the game into the additional 10-minute period.

But just over halfway in, Dillon Lawrence forced his way through to the net and rounded netminder Sam Gospel to jam the puck home for his second goal of the night and bring a conclusion to the latest absorbing contest between the league’s top two teams.

Having gone toe-to-toe throughout the regular season with the Knights prevailing and leaving the Lightning to settle for runners-up for the third year running, Saturday’s win for Tim Wallace’s team will have tasted particularly sweet, setting up a Sunday evening final against defending play-off champions Peterborough Phantoms.

For the Knights, there was to be no third trophy lift for 2024-25, veteran centre Matt Haywood sent off on a losing note but still on a high on the back of another brilliant campaign which had already yielded league and National Cup honours.

And while the Knights’ head coach acknowledged his team had enjoyed another ‘phenomenal’ year, there was clearly frustration that they couldn’t quite deliver their best in front of a packed SkyDome Arena.

“It’s never a nice way to lose a game,” said Aldridge. “I don’t think we started well, I don’t think we deserved to win - the best team won that hockey game.

“We had guys that weren’t going tonight, plain and simple, guys that have maybe had a tough year.

“The goals we gave up, the timings of the goals, laziness on icings, it just wasn’t us and some decisions were cemented for me tonight.

“It is frustrating because we just didn’t deserve to win. I thought they looked nervous in the warm-up and I thought we looked confident - but as soon as the puck dropped, they were confident and we were nervous

“We were always chasing the game, it just wasn’t to be.”

Aldridge said the coming summer would represent something of a rebuild for the organisation with other players following Haywood through the exit door, with news expected to filter out in the coming days on which players won’t be around for pre-season training come mid-August.

“We’ve been phenomenal for the last year, well the last three years, winning three league titles, which is massive,” he added.

“We’ve talked about a rebuild this year and it’s going to have to be a rebuild. There’s going to be more changes this summer than there were last.

“There’s Matty, obviously, but there are some other guys who have played their last games.

“It has been about celebrating Matty’s career but there are some other people who have played a massive part in this hockey club for the last two or three years.”