THE regular season may have ended on a losing note for Leeds Knights but, for everyone connected with the club, the weekend was only ever about one thing.
For the third year running, Knights players, staff and fans came together under one roof to celebrate another major achievement for the club - winning the NIHL National league title for the third year running.
Attention may have already turned to the play-offs - which sees the Knights take on Telford Tigers in back-to-back games this weekend - but Saturday was all about honouring another fantastic campaign by head coach Ryan Aldridge and his team.
Kieran Brown made a wonderful gesture in passing the lifting of the trophy on to Matt Haywood, who just the day before had announced his retirement from playing.
Cue more wild celebrations on and off the ice for a success which had been secured at The Castle six days earlier when a 4-2 win over Solway Sharks secured a six-point weekend to ensure the Knights could not be overtaken.
The Knights couldn’t mark the evening with a win - going down 2-1 to Peterborough Phantoms - but it didn’t dampen the party atmosphere.
The night started promisingly for the Knights when they went ahead in the eighth minute through a Mac Howlett piledriver from 15 yards out.
Less than two minutes later, though, the Phantoms - who the Knights will face in the third and final round of play-off fixtures on April 12-13 - pulled themselves level when Cameron Hough darted between two defencemen and beat Harrison Walker over his left shoulder.
The visitors then went ahead when good work by Nicholas Martin forced a left pad save from Walker only for the rebound to fall kindly for Louie Kynason to pounce and backhand into the net just before the halfway mark.
Thereafter it was one-way traffic as the Knights pounded the Phantoms goal, out-shooting the visitors 33-6 in the third period and 61-25 overall.
But Phantoms’ goalie Hayden Lavigne stood on his head - aided by some brave, desperate defending in front of him - to ensure the battle to finish fourth overall in the regular season standings with Hull Seahawks went to the final day.
But it was a battle Peterborough would come out on the wrong side of, despite beating Berkshire Bees 12-7 the Seahawks edged out the Knights’ 4-3 after a shootout in an entertaining Yorkshire derby at Hull Ice Arena.
Before face-off, Hull’s players formed a much-appreciated guard of honour for the Knights’ entrance onto the ice in recognition of the third straight league title they had won a week earlier.
With little on the line for either side, it was the Knights who got ahead early when Fin Bradon struck with just over two minutes gone.
Declan Jones then redirected past Walker from Josh Hodgkinson to make it 1-1 at 15.24 before the Seahawks took the lead through Emil Svec just under seven minutes into the second.
Oli Endicott levelled in the 34th minute and then Leeds regained the lead through a power play strike from Bradon at 43.03.
It looked like that was how it would finish until Lee Bonner popped up to force home a rebound to make it 3-3 with just over five minutes remaining.
Overtime was required and despite several openings at both ends, the rivals still couldn’t be separated leading to a tense shootout.
Bradon and Kieran Brown found a way past Dmitrir Zimozdra but it wasn’t enough as Svec, Johnny Corneil and Owen Sobchak beat Walker at the other end.
