Leeds Knights rocked late by Romford Raiders but all to play for in NIHL National Cup Final decider on Sunday

Not until there were less than two minutes left did the Knights find themselves behind in the tie, initially forging 2-0 ahead and then taking the lead twice more.

But Romford proved a dogged opponent and finally got their reward when Shaun Miller squeezed the puck past Sam Gospel from a tight angle at 58.14 to put his team ahead for the first time on the night.

It capped a stunning comeback from the hosts, who were 4-3 down going into the last five minutes and set up a mouth-watering second leg at Elland Road Ice Arena. It also ended a 16-game losing streak against the Knights stretching all the way back to December 2021.

Knights’ captain Kieran Brown said afterwards that his team could not take a backward step on their own ice.

“It was a good battle, two teams going at it for a cup,” said Brown.”Unfortunately we’ve come out down one goal but we’re going back to our building and hopefully we can turn it around.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and we’ll stick to what we know. I think we crumbled a little bit tonight, but it was a full building, so a lot of pressure - but going back to our place we should be good and we’ve just got to dig deep.

“We had a lot of guys firing tonight but we need everyone going (on Sunday) so there can’t be any backward steps.”

The Knights struck early on the power play at the Sapphire Centre when Matt Haywood beat Ethan James at 5.43.

It got better for the visitors after the break when Matt Bissonnette was put clear down the middle and made it 2-0 at 24.14.

But the Raiders showed their intent almost immediately when halving the deficit just over a minute later, Tjay Anderson ripping one past Gospel from 15 yards out after seeing his initial shot blocked.

The Knights were then rocked when they found themselves level with just over another minute gone, Miller driving down centre ice on a two-on-one and laying off to fellow Canadian Andrew Shewfelt on his left from where he had time to beat Gospel at 26.29.

It looked like the teams would go in level at the second intermission, but the Knights had other ideas, defenceman Jordan Griffin throwing the puck on net with Innes Gallacher redirecting from in front to put the Knights ahead for a second time on the night at 39.20.

A roughing call on Bow Neely just six seconds into the third gave the Raiders a power play opportunity - and it was one they took advantage of, Reed Morrison and Shewfelt combining to set up Miller who beat Gospel from low down at his near post to make it 3-3 at 41.54.

Noan McMullin then showed perfect timing when he arrived at the right spot on a line change to fire past James from just inside the blue line off a feed from Ethan Hehir to put the Knights ahead again in the 47th minute.

Gospel then denied Miller from close range but was powerless to stop the Raiders levelling for a third time when a neat move involving Miller and Brandon Ayliffe set up Shewfelt to fire home at 55.03.

It was then left to Miller to react quickest to the puck bouncing off the back boards and beat Gospel from a tight angle to set up a tantalising second leg on Sunday at a packed Elland Road.