Leeds Knights: Why ‘two out of three ain’t bad’ weekend’s work for Knights

They gave it a good go though.

The weekend had started in grand fashion with Cole Shudra’s winning goal seven seconds from time earning Ryan Aldridge’s team a thrilling 4-3 win over Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steeldogs at Elland Road on Friday night.

Around 24 hours later, the Leeds players were boarding the team bus no doubt eager to celebrate a first league win of the season over Raiders IHC, the comprehensive 6-1 victory coming at the fourth attempt against them.

But, last night, at Ice Sheffield, Lee Bonner was to prove the stumbling block to a perfect weekend for the Knights, his hat-trick ensuring the Steeldogs gained swift revenge for their defeat 48 hours earlier in a 3-2 win.

Bonner put the hosts ahead with 23.04 on the board with some help from Matt Bissonnette and Jason Hewitt, the same combination coming together on the powerplay just over 10 minutes later when the former Hull Pirates forward doubled his tally for the night.

That was how it remained until the closing moments when Leeds gave themselves a lifeline.

Defenceman Archie Hazeldine struck at 57.39 to halve the deficit but the visitors’ hopes proving short-lived when Bonner sealed his hat-trick 40 seconds later.

There was still time for the Knights to apply more late pressure when Ben Solder made it 3-2 with 36 seconds remaining, but the Steeldogs prevailed.

At the start of the season, the Knights had enjoyed an emphatic 10-4 win at home against Sean Easton’s Raiders team when they were in the midst of their six-game winning streak in the Autumn Cup.

But three meetings in the league since then had seen Leeds draw a blank - twice at home.

So it will have been something of a relief to have come back up the M1 with two points, especially on the back of Friday night’s thrilling triumph.

And it was all the more impressive given how depleted Aldridge’s team were, missing captain Sam Zajac, fellow defenceman Solder, plus forwards Jordan Fisher and Brandon Whistle.

It was Raiders who struck first on the night, though, going ahead through JJ Pitchley with 8.14 on the clock.

Thereafter, it was all Knights, Shudra levelling just over a minute later at 9.30, before Brown put the visitors into the lead with his 30th league goal of the campaign - his 45th in all competitions in 40 appearances - in the 14th minute.

Lewis Baldwin struck at 15.53 to make it 3-1 as Leeds went into the first intermission firmly in control.

The second period was only 39 seconds old when the Knights stretched their lead to three goals, veteran centre Matty Davies taking advantage of the visitors’ third power play of the evening.

It was while on another man advantage that the Knights pulled further away at 35.21 through Shudra.

Raiders swapped their goalies for the third period with Ethan James having conceded five goals on 17 shots, but it made little difference, the Knights wrapping up a comprehensive win when forward Adam Barnes added to his two earlier assists with a goal at 53.10.