Leeds Knights left playing catch-up after leaders Swindon Wildcats exact revenge at The Castle
RYAN ALDRIDGE admitted Leeds Knights were far from their best after a 5-3 home defeat to NIHL National North leaders Swindon Wildcats saw them emerge pointless across the weekend.
A 2-0 defeat the previous night at Milton Keynes Lightning - combined with an overtime win at Solway Sharks for Swindon - meant there was greater emphasis on Sunday's clash at Elland Road ice Arena.
But two goals and a man of the match performance from Swindon's Tyler Watkins saw the visitors triumph, increasing their lead in the standings over third-placed Leeds to seven points.
With just over half the regular season schedule remaining, there is clearly plenty of time remaining for the Knights to overhaul their Wiltshire rivals but, as far as Knights’ head coach Aldridge was concerned, it was a bad night at the office for his players, insisting they need to bounce back quickly when they host Hull Seahawks at The Castle on Friday night.
“We haven’t been at our best all weekend,” admitted Aldridge. “I thought we gave up two really sloppy goals really early (against Swindon).
“A lot of people are looking for excuses instead of digging deep. It’s a weekend we want to move on from pretty quickly.
“We need a performance with everybody going. If you can’t bounce back after the last two games we’ve just played … it will be a true test of character.”
The Wildcats got the scoring underway less than four minutes into the first period, Wildcats top point-scorer Logan Vande Meerakker firing the puck behind Knights goalie Sam Gospel from close range.
Within two minutes the Wildcats doubled their lead, Watkins getting inside the blue paint to redirect a Ben O’Connor pass from the left circle.
With 3.27 remaining in the first period, Innes Gallacher made it a one-goal game when a Sam Dunn pass from behind the net landed on his stick for him to fire home.
Seven minutes into the second, Watkins doubled his tally, as well as restoring the visitors’ two-goal lead when Glenn Billing found him from the corner before he fired past Gospel.
With less than three minutes of the period remaining, O’Connor took a shot from the left point, the puck floating out in front to Owen Griffiths who slotted it home to leave the hosts with a mountain to climb.
Hope for Leeds arrived in the 49th minute when Dunn fired a shot from the left point which was tipped by Liam Peyton, the rebound off goalie Renny Marr finding Kieran Brown who fired home the rebound.
Leeds huffed and puffed but Grade A chances were in short supply, although they eventually got their reward with 68 seconds remaining.
Leeds huffed and puffed and were rewarded with 68 seconds left. With Gospel pulled, the Knights placed multiple bodies in front of Marr. A pass from Balint Pakozdi behind the net finding Dunn, who fired home from eight yards out.
But, after Gospel was pulled for a second time, the puck found Tomasz Malasinski who had the simple task of firing into the empty net with 51 seconds remaining to make it 5-3, allowing the Wildcats to even the score following Leeds’ 4-1 win in Wiltshire last month.