LEEDS KNIGHTS may have seen their six-game winning streak come to an end - but they remain the team to catch in NIHL National.
A storming 8-2 win over Berkshire Bees at The Castle on Saturday night gave Ryan Aldridge and his players plenty of confidence going into Sunday night’s visit to Peterborough Phantoms.
Slava Koulikov’s team had been beaten 9-2 by Swindon Wildcats 24 hours earlier but posted the perfect response when they edged out the two-time regular season champions 6-4, the win given some gloss by a late empty-net strike.
The Knights were always playing catch-up from the moment they went behind to Cameron Hough’s 15th-minute power play opener.
Finley Bradon picked the perfect moment for his 10th goal of the campaign to level things up at 24.57 but the Knights reigning champions went into the second intermission two goals adrift after two strikes in as many minutes just before the halfway mark, Hough’s second of the night being quickly followed by a Nathan Salem goal at 28.38.
Captain Kieran Brown opened his account to make it 3-2 with a power play marker at 47.06, but after Dylan Hehir hooked Luke Ferrara just over a minute later, the former GB international slotted home past Sam Gospel with the resulting penalty shot.
Brown quickly made it a one-goal again with his second power play goal of the night but Hough’s hat-trick strike a shorthanded effort at 54.15 proved decisive and even though Brown made it a treble for himself just over a minute later - again on the power play - that was as close as the Knights got, Janne Laakkonen making sure of the points for the Phantoms with 17 seconds remaining, Gospel having been pulled from goal moments earlier.
The night before, in front of another 1,600-plus crowd, the Knights took charge against a short-benched Bees from an early stage, taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission courtesy of a quickfire double from Mac Howlett and an 18th-minute effort from Brown.
Bradon added a power play goal in the 25th minute before Bees got on the board through Vanya Antonov at 25.48.
Brown added his second, this time with the Knights shorthanded, at 28.00 but the visitors showed they were up for the fight when making it 5-2 through Dominik Gabaj just over a minute later.
The result was put beyond doubt, though, with two goals in the 45th minute, the first from Matt Haywood, the second from Matt Barron.
And, on what proved to be another milestone night for the skipper - passing the 450-point mark for the Knights - Brown broke free in the closing seconds before unleashing an unstoppable shot through Dean Skinns to seal a thumping 8-2 win.
