Leeds Knights pay respects to NIHL National champions before turning attention to their own big night
HAVING stuck around to respectfully watch Swindon Wildcats’ NIHL National title celebrations on Saturday night, Leeds Knights will be hoping to take part in similar scenes themselves later this week.
The Knights did their best to be party poopers at the Link Centre when they refused to lie down against the 2025-26 champions, coming from behind four times during an entertainingly open 60 minutes before Liam Peyton applied the finishing touch with just 56 seconds left in overtime to seal a 5-4 victory.
It may have briefly dampened the spirits of the home team and their supporters, but they soon forgot coming second-best on the night when they celebrated their efforts over the previous six months by inheriting the crown that Leeds have made their own for the previous three years.
Naturally, the Knights will have been watching on from the other end of the ice wondering what might have been but also taking note to help them try and make sure that ‘normal service’ can be resumed 12 months from now.
But there is still plenty left to play for during the current campaign.
The play-offs will kick in just under three weeks from now, while - more pressing - is Wednesday’s second leg of the NIHL National Cup final against Sheffield Steeldogs.
The Knights trail 3-1 from the first leg at The Castle 10 days ago but - having got the better of the Steeldogs in the last league encounter of the season between the two on Friday night - Ryan Aldridge and his players will head to ice Sheffield confident of overturning the two-goal deficit.
The Knights hope to have captain and leading point-scorer Kieran Brown back in the line-up for the concluding part of the final, the 25-year-old having missed the first leg in Leeds and five games in total with an upper-body injury.
Heading into the eighth meeting of the season against Sheffield on the back of a three-game winning streak, the Knights have shown their ability to adapt.
On Saturday, it looked like Swindon’s title party was off to an early start when Edgars Bebris fired through traffic to beat Sam Gospel after just 63 seconds.
But Jordan Griffin picked the perfect moment for his first goal of the season when his long range effort eluded Jordan Marr through a screen to make it 1-1 at 14.37.
It set a theme for the night, Swindon getting themselves ahead only to be pegged back by a dogged Knights.
Sam Cooper scored 90 seconds into the second period in similar fashion to Griffin but from the right-hand side to cancel out Tomasz Malasinski’s 17th-minute strike.
Just over six minutes later, it was the turn of Matt Bissonnette to make his mark, firing home shortly after Logan vande Meerakker had made it 3-2 to the hosts.
When player-coach Aaron Nell fired his team home for a fourth time on the night - with a 48th-minute power play marker - the hosts could have been forgiven that there was surely no way back again for their visitors.
But Frankie O’Sullivan made history for himself and the team when - aged just 16 years and 73 days old - he became the youngest player to score in NIHL National for the Knights, when he jabbed a loose puck home at 52.00.
It was enough to take the game into overtime and, after loose play had presented opportunities at both ends, it was Peyton who was able to make it count.
Capitalising on a power play following a hooking call on Malasinski, Peyton beat Marr with a blast from the right circle at 64.04.
It was enough to secure a harad-fought, four-point weekend for the three-time champions and – ahead of Sunday’s schedule – move them back up to second in the standings.