LEEDS KNIGHTS booked their place at the NIHL National Final Four Weekend in Coventry, setting up a mouthwatering semi-final showdown with Milton Keynes Lightning.
The Knights will play the second game at the SkyDome Arena this Saturday (5.30pm), with Group B winners Swindon Wildcats taking on Peterborough Phantoms.
Needing just one point to guarantee their place in the end-of-season grand finale - and keep alive their hopes of a treble - the Knights took care of business on the first night of their double-header with Peterborough.
A 5-1 victory on the road on Saturday ensured the Knights would finish top of Group A but, unfortunately, they couldn’t make it five post-season wins when they went down 5-3 at home to the Phantoms the following night.
Sunday still proved a night for celebration, though, with fans, players and staff coming together to provide a brilliant send-off for Matt Haywood, making his last-ever appearance at The Castle ahead of his retirement at the end of this season.
The moment was marked before and after the game with videos of just some of his many highlight reel moments as a Knights’ player were played, as well as messages from team-mates past and present.
Head coach Ryan Aldridge presented a framed ‘Haywood’ jersey, while one of the biggest reveals was having one of the Knights’ hospitality suites named after him.
His daughters also got to do the pre-game ceremonial puck drop, while there were laps of honour, a centre ice stick raise by his team-mates and, finally, a guard of honour from the Knights players as he exited the ice onto the home bench for the last time.
Earlier, it looked like Leeds would mark the occasion with a win when they struck first at The Castle, Matt Barron finishing off a sweeping move involving Matt Bissonnette and Kieran Brown by firing past Hayden Lavigne with just 183 seconds on the clock.
Tom Norton pulled Peterborough level when beating Harrison Walker from the top of the left circle in the 15th minute and the visitors then got ahead when Cameron Hough broke clear before jamming the puck over the line just over two minutes into the second period.
Matt Bissonnette levelled for the Knights from close range at 27.20 when redirecting a Dylan Hehir pass from the right boards but the Phantoms got ahead again when Jarvis Hunt capitalised on a power play when tapping home from close range at 34.57.
Barron was quick to respond, though, with his second of the night at 36.20 - firing home from a tight angle at the back post off a pinpoint feed from Bow Neely - leaving the teams all-square going into the final 20.
It was in the early part of the third where the game was won, however, Duncan Speirs putting Peterborough ahead for a third time at 41.19 from the top of the left circle before, just 73 seconds later, Nathan Salem jammed home a rebound from close range to make it 5-3.
Chances came and went at both ends, but the Knights could not find a way past Lavigne again, Peterborough holding out to finish second in Group A.
The Knights had secured their place in Coventry the previous evening in relative comfort in Peterborough, going ahead through a strike from Barron at 3.56.
Second period goals followed from Neely and Finley Bradon, the young centre then adding a second on the night just 39 seconds into the third period to make it 4-0.
Luke Ferrara replied for the hosts at 52.16 but his effort was quickly cancelled out by Kieran Brown’s power play marker just over two minutes later.
