Leeds Knights 8 Hull Seahawks 3: First strike to holders as they down rivals on NIHL National play-offs opening night

It looked like the theme of this particular Yorkshire rivalry would continue in the same vein on Friday night at Elland Road Ice Arena when only one goal separated them at the end of a competitive opening 20 minutes in their NIHL National play-offs opener.

But by the time the game had reached its halfway point, it was a different tale altogether, Leeds having raced into a 5-1 lead to leave the visitors reeling.

For the Knights it was a perfect night as they eventually ran out comfortable and fully deserved 8-3 winners. For the Seahawks, however, it was the worst possible start to their post-season.

It would be fair to expect some kind of reaction on Sunday night when the two meet again at Hull Ice Arena (5.30pm).

Thankfully for Matty Davies’s, this year’s first stage of the play-offs is a group format, meaning one bad night, maybe even one bad weekend, does not necessarily end of a team’s hopes of making the Final Four Weekend in Coventry on April 27-28. But after a night like Friday night in Leeds, there is certainly less margin for error.

The night may well have ended badly for the visitors, but it had all started so brightly.

It didn’t take long for the deadlock to be broken, even if it came in rather fortuitous fashion for the Seahawks when Sam Towner drove down the right and fired a speculative effort on Sam Gospel’s goal, the puck somehow sneaking in at the Leeds’ goalie’s near post with just 1.29 on the clock.

The home fans weren’t quiet for long though, Jake Witkowski finding himself room in centre ice before drawing Jordan McLaughlin and then laying off to his left where Matt Haywood fired into an empty net just 69 seconds later.

The frantic start continued when, within two minutes, Ethan Hehir was allowed time and space to work his way into a promising position from below the goal-line and into the left circle from where he fired into McLaughlin’s top right-hand corner to put the Knights ahead.

Matt Barron hit the crossbar and Mac Howlett was denied when one-on-one with McLaughlin in the 12th minute, Gospel denying Sobchak in the same situation at the other end shortly before the end of the period.

The second started in similar quickfire fashion to the first, this time just 54 seconds having elapsed before the net was rustling.

Declan Balmer didn’t get enough on his pass to Brock Bartholomew around the back of the goal off the back boards, allowing Witkowski to intercept and quickly find Haywood in front, the veteran centre then selling a feint to Balmer and McLaughlin to fire into an empty net and make it 3-1.

The Knights then increased the pressure when Innes Gallacher drove into the Seahawks zone and beat McLaughlin low down to his left from eight yards out at 22.12.

There was even more to come before the game reached the halfway mark, Jordan Buesa making sure the Knights made the most of a power play when he roofed the puck from the top of the right circle at 28.03.

More was to come when Witkowski showed neat skill by creating space for himself down centre ice before drawing the Seahawks’ defenders to him and laying off to Kieran Brown to his left, the Leeds captain left free to pick his spot and make it 6-1 at 35.52.

Hull, already well-beaten, managed to reduce the deficit by one when Bartholomew’s stretch pass found Bobby Chamberlain, who somehow managed to turn and poke the puck past Gospel while at full stretch at 37.42.

It didn’t mean a comeback was likely of course, that faint possibility fading even further when the Knights scored their second power play goal of the night after Emil Svec took a petulant slashing call.

The Seahawks came close to killing the resulting penalty off, until Bow Neely drove hard down the right and squared to Barron, who was all alone at the back post to slot home and make it 7-2 at 46.20.

It got even worse for the Seahawks when Jordan Fisher took an unnecessary cross-checking penalty, Brown somehow working the puck to Witkowski from behind the net while down on the ice before the skilled American sold a couple of feints and picked his spot in the 54th minute, adding a goal to his four assists.

It had long been a night to forget for the Seahawks, even if they did grab a late consolation in the last couple of minutes. Balmer’s shot through traffic straight off a face-off win was denied by Gospel’s outstretched right leg before the puck fell kindly to Towner, who beat the Leeds goalie at his near post.