Another three-point play-off weekend for the Morley Glass Leeds Knights with a Yorkshire derby victory secured on home ice and another point collected in overtime on the road.
Saturday night was one for the books with a brilliant display of Knights hockey for all to see inside The Castle as Oli Endicott scored a late goal to secure the win for the West Yorkshire side and Sam Gospel stood tall in between the pipes to claim a shutout.
Head Coach Ryan Aldridge spoke after the game saying: “I thought the boys were brilliant tonight. [I’m] super proud of them.
“I thought the D-zone was good – way better than it has been for the last couple of weeks.
“Off the puck, everyone was buying in and a massive goal too… we waited long enough but a massive goal. Absolutely massive.”
After 58 minutes of physical, battling hockey, Oli Endicott struck the back of the net and The Castle went wild.
“It was pretty loud. I think I might have even left my feet myself,” said Aldridge.
“Daragh made a smart play and then obviously the boys were just hungry at the net which we were talking about you know, it’s going to be an ugly goal kind of thing.
“We had to get to the net, we had to put pressure on him and Oli did. When Oli plays that grindy way, he’s a very effective hockey player he got us the points tonight.
“When he plays the game the right way, the way I think he should he play, he’s super effective and he proved that tonight.”
It was a game that showed the sheer intensity of play-off hockey with Aldridge continuing: “I think it’s just a typical play-off game – both teams grinding it out.
“When you have to grind a game out like that - I think that’s good for us as a young group. It shows our maturity, shows that we’re getting more maturity into our game.”
There’s one final weekend of play-off hockey for the Knights, and one last game at The Castle coming up this Sunday, 4:15pm face-off.
