Knights suffer penalty shoot-out agony to end aspirations of another NIHL National double
LEEDS Knights were denied a second straight NIHL National double in the most dramatic of circumstances when they lost 4-3 after a penalty shoot-out to Peterborough Phantoms.
The Knights were looking to retain the play-off crown they won last year as well as add to the league title they won for a second successive time back in April.
But they were denied in the cruelest of fashions when Luke Ferrara scored the decisive goal in the shootout to send the Phantoms bench delirious along with their fans behind the net where the winning strike took place. It remains another stellar campaign by the Knights, though, having already retained their regular season crown in such dominant fashion.
Having beaten Swindon Wildcats 7-3 in Saturday’s semi-final, the Knights would have been considered favourites going into the grand finale at Coventry’s SkyDome Arena.
But the Phantoms – who beat Telford Tigers 5-4 in overtime in their semi-final – had other ideas.
There was no repeat show for Knights fans from the opening 10 minutes of the semi-final when they put four unanswered goals past a stunned Swindon, but what they did get was a disciplined approach from their team.
Jordan Marr was the slightly busier of the two goalies, saving early on with his left pad from Kieran Brown and then Jordan Griffin after the Knights’ defenceman drove down the right boards before cutting inside.
As in keeping with most of the period, the breakthrough when it came was a rather scrappy one – a scramble in front of Marr’s net eventually seeing Matt Haywood jam the puck home at 13.38.
If the first period had been a somewhat cagey affair, the second was anything but, Peterborough going ahead with two goals in just over three minutes.
The equaliser came when Jarvis Hunt drove down the right-hand boards, cut inside and fired into Sam Gospel’s top right-hand corner.
The breakdown of a Knights play just inside the Phantoms’ zone then cost them dearly, Ferrara scampering down the left before switching play to Ivan Bjorkly Nordstrom, who let rip from the top of the right circle to leave Gospel with no chance.
The Knights’ equaliser, when it came, was from an unlikely source, good work by Noah McMullin in the right corner seeing him denied by Marr’s right pad before the puck was eventually worked to Dylan Hehir on the blue line on the left boards.
From there the Knights’ defenceman fired through traffic and into Marr’s bottom left-hand corner with 37.30 on the clock.
But no sooner had the Knights fans finished celebrating than the cheers went up in the section next to them from their Phantoms’ counterparts.
Bow Neely failed to control the puck on the edge of the Phantoms zone, leaving Lukas Sladkovsky with a free run on Gospel to make it 3-2.
The third period replicated more the first than the second period, it probably had to given everything that had happened in the middle 20.
It wasn’t too long before the teams were level again, though, the influential McMullin collecting a loose puck just inside the Phantoms’ zone and firing on net where it took a deflection past Marr to make it 3-3.
Then came the shoot-out, neither side scoring until the fifth round when Barron fired the Knights ahead, only for Bradley Bowering to level next up.
As the order changed to Leeds going first in sudden-death, Barron couldn’t repeat his earlier accuracy, leaving Ferrara to beat Gospel with and seal a memorable win.