The Leeds Knights were beaten 7-5 by the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday night as their second weekend of pre-season came to an end at The Castle.
The Yorkshire rivals produced an entertaining game in front of the home crowd, with the Knights finding the back of the net four times in the third period.
Kieran Brown opened the scoring for Leeds under 30 seconds in, assisted by Matt Bissonnette, before Sheffield responded with two quick goals to take a 2-1 lead.
The Steeldogs added two more before the end of the opening period, including a short-handed goal from Bailey Yates, to head into the first intermission with a 4-1 advantage.
The Knights continued to battle in the second period, with Sheffield adding two power-play goals from CJ Garcia and Michael Pelech.
It was the final period that provided the entertainment though as the Knights came out strong, scoring four times as they pushed to close the gap.
Cullen McLean scored his first Knights goal, assisted by Liam Peyton before Sam Dunn converted on the power-play just over a minute later, assisted again by Liam Peyton.
Bow Neely added another power-play goal at 53-minutes with Sam Cooper then scoring a birthday goal with just over two minutes remaining, assisted by Kieran Brown and Matt Bissonnette.
Sheffield, however, had already built enough of a lead to hold on for the 7-5 victory.
Despite the defeat, the Knights now have three pre-season games under their belts, having faced Tilburg Trappers before travelling to Hull Seahawks and securing a 4-3 Yorkshire derby victory last weekend.
The game also provided another opportunity for the squad to continue building chemistry and match fitness ahead of the start of the competitive campaign. There’s one last pre-season test in Sheffield tomorrow night, before attention turns towards the 2026/27 league season, which gets underway next weekend with another Yorkshire derby.
Hull Seahawks will be the visitors to The Castle on Friday 18th September, with face-off at 7pm.
After a busy opening few weeks of preparation, the Knights will be looking to start their league campaign in front of the home crowd with a win.
