Leeds Knights hit by suspension to captain Kieran Brown for opening NIHL National play-off weekend

Brown has been hit with a three-game suspension after a review of a major penalty handed out to him during the 6-5 win at Bristol Pitbulls last Saturday was referred to the league’s Department of Player Safety.

During the game, Brown was handed a five-minute penalty for interference following an altercation with Bristol defenceman, Calum McGill. Following the DOPS review, it has been upgraded to cross-checking.

Brown – who is the Knights’ top points-scorer this season with 37 goals and 35 assists in 43 league and Cup games – has already served the first game of the suspension when he sat out Sunday’s 5-1 home win over Peterborough Phantoms. He will return to the line-up for the play-off weekend double-header against Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5.

In their statement on the decision – released on Thursday afternoon, two days before the face-off at home Telford – the review panel wrote: “In the build-up to the incident, play is around the Bristol net. Bristol #29 (McGill) and Leeds #12 (Brown) are in a battle for position and the puck. Brown shoots on net and then follows-up with a cross-check to McGill’s body.

"McGill retaliates with a slash to the arm of Brown, all whilst in motion. The players then separate by about two metres and the puck is played towards McGill. Brown drives forwards and delivers a cross-check to McGill, forcibly, with both hands on the stick at a reckless height.

"The initial point of contact is high on the receiving player's chest before being driven up into the face of McGill.

"It is important to note that there are a number of factors that separate this play from other cross-checking violations elevating the incident to merit supplemental discipline: this is not an inadvertent or accidental use of the stick while leveraging for body position or other hockey purposes, where players can reasonably expect escalated contact, or for both players’ sticks to come up high or other hockey purposes.

“In short, this is not a hockey play.”

The ban is a further blow to the Knights’ play-off ambitions, given they will lose five players – Jonas Bennett, Danny Harrison, Liam Hine, Daragh Spawforth and Edgars Vengis to the GB Under-18 team that is competing at the World Championships Division 2A tournament in Romania from April 12-18.

That means they are unavailable for the Knights’ final weekend of Group B play-off games against Milton Keynes Lightning, plus the Final Four Weekend at Coventry’s SkyDome Arena, should Leeds make it that far.