Hull Seahawks ready, willing and able in NIHL National play-off scrap

On Sunday evening, Davies cut a forlorn figure in his office at Hull Ice Arena, having watched his team let control of their play-off destiny slip from their grasp following a 6-4 defeat to Leeds Knights.

The previous night - in Leeds - it had all been rather different, the Seahawks having taken two points after winning 7-6 in overtime, a situation only made possible when they levelled to make it 6-6 with only 13 seconds of regulation left.

With just over five minutes remaining in the rematch in Hull 24 hours later, Hull were good value for their 4-3 lead.

But, within two minutes, everything had changed, Leeds equalising and then going ahead, cementing a regulation win with just over a minute remaining.

The task ahead of Hull is a simple one. Beat Telford Tigers twice – however they do it, just collect four points, then they have to hope that results from the double-header between Leeds and the Peterborough Phantoms go their way.

The permutations are many. A point will be enough to see Leeds through to the Final Four Weekend in Coventry, while Peterborough need at least a win and hope their current superior goal difference over Hull remains in place on Sunday evening.

Thursday required a ‘video nasty’ put together by head coach Davies to make his players aware of where they had erred on home ice against Leeds. But he was keen to move on from the disappointment and focus on the task at hand against Telford.

“There is still everything to play for,” said Davies. “Thursday was the first time we’d got together since the defeat to Leeds. I had to go over the game, I didn’t want to dwell on it too long, but I did want to get it all out on the table, talk about it and look at the errors that we made and it was then put to bed.

“The lads know what we need to do this weekend. They are all ready. Last weekend we proved we are a top team and that we can beat the best team in the league when we’re right on it.

"We need to do that again this weekend and see where it takes us.”