Leeds Knights: Young guns display their eye for goal on weekend to savour
IT was a weekend of firsts at Leeds Knights - as head coach Ryan Aldridge was only too happy to acknowledge.
No sooner had one of his up-and-coming teenage forwards bagged their first goal at NIHL National level, than another emulated the feat the following night on a weekend which saw the Knights cruise to back-to-back victories against Bristol Pitbulls.
Edgars Vengis made it a night to remember in Bristol when he got himself in the right place at the right time to fire home a rebound to make it 5-1 just before the halfway mark.
Against the same opponents the following night at Elland Road Ice Arena, Daragh Spawforth reacted quickly to a rebound to fire home to record his first-ever goal in the second tier.
They are two of four youngsters added to the Knights’ roster during the summer, with defenceman Jonas Bennett – named man of the match in the pre-season home win over Sheffield Steeldogs – and forward Danny Harrison also getting valuable ice time at both NIHL National level and with Leeds Knights 2 in NIHL North One.
Aldridge is happy with the way the quartet are developing and saluted the two youngsters who got their first goals for the team at the weekend.
“Edgars has just turned himself into a real player, every week,” said Aldridge. “He’s demanding more and more ice time and that’s what we want obviously.
“We let some good people go in order to make room for the development of these youngsters, so it’s nice to see them turning into that.
“Daragh’s had limited ice time (before this weekend) but it’s what he can bring to the table.
“I know he’s a predator around the net, he likes to shoot the puck and when he gets the puck there he rarely misses, so it was nice to see him get a goal.”