LEEDS KNIGHTS produced a stunning derby day comeback on the road at Sheffield Steeldogs to extend their unbeaten run against their Yorkshire rivals to 12 games.
The 7-3 victory at Ice Sheffield briefly returned the Knights to the top of the NIHL National standings until Milton Keynes Lightning restored themselves to first spot with an 8-0 win at home to Solway Sharks on Saturday.
At one point in South Yorkshire, it looked like the Steeldogs would end their near two-year wait for a win over the Knights when they raced into a 3-0 lead inside 12 minutes.
But the Knights gradually chipped away at the deficit, pulling within one after 40 minutes before a blitz of five goals in nine third period minutes saw them to a comfortable victory ahead of Sunday’s visit to ‘The Castle’ from title rivals Swindon Wildcats.
The Steeldogs had got off to the perfect start when Sam Tremblay redirected Jonathan Kirk’s shot past Sam Gospel inside two minutes.
Tremblay then fired home from distance three minutes later to double the hosts’ lead before Jack Brammer did the same from a similar position to make it 3-0 with just 11.19 on the clock.
Leeds rallied and got themselves back in the game when Oli Endicott finished off low past Dan Crowe in the 17th minute off a neat feed from Mac Howlett.
It gave the Knights something to cling to going into the second period, the deficit reduced even further after Kieran Brown fired through Crowe at 23.32.
Less than three minutes of the third period had gone before the game was turned on its head by the Knights.
The game-tying goal came on the power play when patient build-up play saw Matt Barron divert Noah McMullin’s throw on net past Crowe at 42.32.
Just 24 more seconds had passed before the Knights struck again, Ethan Hehir teeing up Endicott to blast home.
Sheffield had a chance to hit back quickly when Brown was called for boarding, but the next goal came at the other end, Ethan Hehir chucking the puck towards Matt Bissonnette and into the Steeldogs zone.
The Knights forward beat Crowe to the puck but still had plenty to do when he rounded the back of the net and backhanded home past the netminder’s despairing dive at 45.17.
A second power play effort arrived just over five minutes later when Howlett ripped one through traffic from the left circle to make it 6-3, before the comeback was completed when a nicely-weighted pass from Matt Haywood from just inside his own zone played in Brown on the right, from where he drove towards net and fired home low to Crowe’s right.
