Sheffield Steeldogs and Leeds Knights taking battle for NIHL National second spot to the wire

With Telford Tigers only needing a point to confirm their retention of the regular season championship after their 6-2 win at home to Leeds on Sunday, focus is concentrated on the race for second and, at the other end, an equally-absorbing contest for the eighth and final play-off spot between Bees and Raiders.

As it stands, four points separate the top two, Swindon Wildcats remaining in second spot on 55 points, with the Steeldogs four off in fifth place with four games remaining. In between, the Knights and Milton Keynes Lightning are tied on 52 points.

Having impressed greatly in Friday night’s 6-3 win over Telford in the first leg of the National Cup Final at Ice Sheffield, the Steeldogs came up slightly short on the road the following night when they went down 6-5 after a shootout at Milton Keynes.

But Greg Wood’s team bounced back admirably on Sunday evening, securing a 4-2 victory at Peterborough Phantoms, taking them five points clear of their Cambridgeshire rivals, who had closed the gap on Saturday with a 4-3 win at Basingstoke Bison.

It was far from easy, however, the teams tied at 2-2 with just over seven minutes to play before the Steeldogs with efforts from Jonathan Kirk and Jason Hewitt, the latter an empty net strike with just 13 seconds remaining.

Earlier, Hewitt had broken the deadlock at 18.10, with Bradley Bowering levelling on the power play for the hosts at 33.27. Alex Graham restored his team’s one-goal lead 61 seconds later but the Phantoms would not go away, Duncan Speirs equalising at 52.36, again on the man advantage, only for the Steeldogs to show their durability inside the final three minutes.

On Saturday, the Steeldogs looked dead and buried at 5-2 down inside the last 10 minutes. But three goals inside six minutes took the game into overtime, the Lightning taking the extra point on the one-on-one exchange that followed.

Andreas Valdix and Graham had kept the visitors in the game with second-period strikes, but it was Lee Bonner’s strike at 52.02 that proved the catalyst for the comeback, Graham striking twice more for a memorable hat-trick, although he was to end up on the losing side.

In Shropshire, Tom Watkins’s Tigers’ team showing why they are destined to retain the regular season title they first won in NIHL National’s inaugural season in 2019-20, before the global pandemic brought everything to a standstill.

The Tigers were 3-0 ahead before the Knights were able to respond, Bayley Harewood, Vladimir Luka and Jack Hopkins all finding a way past Gospel.

Brown - who else? - responded for the visitors at 26.08 but it wasn’t long before the hosts’ restored their three-goal advantage through a second for Haywood just over three minutes later.

The game was effectively over as a contest before the second intermission, Luka and Hopkins both matching Harewood’s tally, Brown’s own second of the night just 24 seconds into the third completing the scoring.

On Saturday, Ryan Aldridge’s team were made to work hard for the full 60 minutes to clinch both points, the first two minutes of the third period proving crucial to the Knights’ cause when they scored twice within 46 seconds of each other, Brown completing his hat-trick at 40.55 before Lewis Baldwin doubled his tally for the night.

William Stead completed his own memorable night when making it a one-goal game again inside the last five minutes to complete his own-hat-trick, but that was as close as Bees got.

Earlier, the two sides had traded goals back and forth. Brown, at 13.26 and then Baldwin with his first of the night 52 seconds later, put the Knights in control, only for Doug Sheppard’s team to level before the first break through Stead’s double-strike.

The visitors then went ahead through Dominik Gabaj, Barnes equalising before Josh Martin made it 4-3.

Brown’s milestone strike with the Knights shorthanded levelled matters again, before the Knights edged the third period.