NIHL National Review - How Leeds Knights, Sheffield Steeldogs and Hull Seahawks fared

Third-placed Peterborough Phantoms probably still fancied their chances of getting back into the mix between the leaders and the team just below them – Milton Keynes Lightning – had they been able to overturn Leeds on home ice.

But after being blown by the Knights taking a stunning 5-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes, they never got a chance to do that.

Things calmed down a little in the second when the hosts got on the board twice through Glenn Billing and Martins Susters, but they still conceded three at the other end, Dylan Hehir and Adam Barnes getting on the board while Mac Howlett completed his hat-trick having got the Knights’ first two goals of the night.

Jake Witkowski, Carter Hamill and Josh Hodgkinson also struck inside the first 20, while Howlett later made it four for the night at 45.02, Alex Padelek grabbing a third for the Phantoms.

It was tougher on home ice the night before for the Knights, but they eventually ran out 6-4 winners against bottom club Bees IHC courtesy of goals from Kieran Brown (2), Matt Haywood (2), Witkowski and Howlett.

The Bees bounced back 24 hours later when they defeated Sheffield Steeldogs 5-3 on home ice, Alex Graham and Lee Bonner (2) ensuring plenty was still at stake up until the final buzzer.

The Bees got themselves 2-0 ahead inside 12 minutes thanks to strikes from Harvey Stead and James Galazzi, Graham halving the deficit at 12.26 only for the visitors to go in at the first break two adrift again after Dominik Gabaj struck at 19.18.

The only goal of the second period saw the hosts strengthen their grip on the game when Stead doubled his tally in the 34th-minute strike.

Hope of a comeback for Greg Wood’s team arrived in the form of a Lee Bonner effort at 44.39 and, with just under four minutes remaining, they were still very much in the game.

But a second for Gabaj at 56.14 signalled the end of their attempts at salvaging something from the game, even though Bonner grabbed his second at 57.22.

Swindon Wildcats closed the gap on fourth-placed Sheffield to three points with seven games remaining with a comfortable 6-1 triumph at Hull Seahawks, one of two defeats for Matty Davies’s side at the weekend which ended the East Yorkshire team’s already-faint hopes of making the post-season.

Coupled with a 6-4 defeat at Telford Tigers on Saturday – one of the teams they needed to overhaul –it leaves Hull 12 points behind Basingstoke Bison – the team currently occupying the eighth and final play-off spot.

With just six games remaining, Hull can only match Bison’s points total, but would lose out based on the head-to-head series between the two, with Ashley Tait’s team having the better head-to-head record of the two.

At the halfway mark, Hull were well in the game with Emil Svec having just cancelled out Russell Cowley’s 17th-minute opener for Swindon.

Edgars Bebris got the visitors ahead again before the second intermission, after which it was all Swindon, with further goals coming from Aaron Nell, Floyd Taylor, Cowley and Tomasz Malasinski.

On Saturday in Shropshire the Seahawks went into the game knowing it really was last-chance saloon for their play-off hopes.

But they were to be cruelly denied taking anything from the game when Finley Howells struck with 61 seconds remaining to make it 5-4 to the hosts, who added an empty-netter with Vladimir Luka’s hat-trick strike 40 seconds later.

It was harsh on the Seahawks who had more than matched their hosts up to that point.

Luka’s two first-period goals sandwiched a reply from Hull’s Andrej Themar at 10.07, the Slovakian striking for a second time just before the halfway point to make it a one-goal game again after Robert Hermann had made it 3-1 to Telford with 23.04 on the clock.

Howells then made it 4-2 early in the third only for Hull to hit back through Jordan Fisher and Emil Svec, but it was the home side who were left celebrating at the end of the night.