Leeds Knights v Milton Keynes Lightning: Age no barrier as Knights gain necessary experience to succeed

Saturday brings another of those ‘moments’ when they take on Milton Keynes Lightning in the play-off semi-finals at Coventry’s SkyDome Arena.

For Leeds, it is the latest hurdle to overcome in their quest for an unprecedented treble at this level of the UK game, for the Lightning an opportunity to exact revenge on a team they have come off second-best to in the race for the regular season league title for three years running.

With Leeds having already pocketed two trophies, it could be argued that the Lightning go into the encounter the more ‘desperate’ team, but Ryan Aldridge knows his Knights players will not lack any motivation themselves - not least sending veteran centre Matt Haywood off into retirement with another winners’ medal.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be a confident group going into the weekend,” said Aldridge, whose team finished top of their play-off group.

“Three years in a row we’ve been the youngest team and we’ve experienced a lot in those three years. I think the Cup this year was a big one for us to get over the line, just through nerves and with everyone thinking that it was the one that was always getting away from us.

“Then the league, obviously, was far, far harder this year. I thought Swindon had the momentum at Christmas time to maybe do it and I didn’t think we did.

“But then we went and won 10 games straight to go on and win it again.

“And there were some big games within that run. The Milton Keynes away game was effectively for the title - let’s not kid anybody, whoever won that game was winning the league and I felt we went down there and showed what we could do.”

Another big moment arrived last weekend when they still required a point going into the final weekend of Group A play-off games against Peterborough Phantoms, who take on Group B winners Swindon Wildcats in the other semi-final.

Playing on the road first, the Knights did what they needed to do at the first time of asking, winning 5-1 on the back of a performance Aldridge felt was one of their best of the season.

“I felt we were brilliant for the second and third periods - one of our best performances of the season,” he added. “Defensively I thought we were brilliant.

“Everybody just bought in, everybody was up for it.

“The next night was a bit of a dead rubber, but I never have to worry about this team regaining their momentum.

“Once our mentality is right, we know we’re a good hockey team.”

On the aim of reaching a third successive play-off final, Aldridge is aware of how tough the road to get there will be against the Lightning.

“It’s going to be an intense game,” he added. “I don’t think there’s probably a bigger game. I’m sure this is a trophy they really want - hopefully, we can get in the way of that

“The boys have been there twice before now, won one and lost one so I think mentally we know what to expect.

“I think being there before and experiencing both sides of it helps. You’ve got to learn something from those moments - the good and the bad - so I think it’s a positive.”