LEEDS KNIGHTS staged a remarkable comeback led by captain Kieran Brown to close out another four-point weekend with a thrilling 5-4 win over Swindon Wildcats at The Castle.
The Knights were halfway towards posting a maximum return having come away from Ice Sheffield with the points on Saturday after a clinical performance saw them defeat the Sheffield Steeldogs 5-2.
But it looked like going the other way after at the halfway mark in their encounter with Swindon the following night.
They found themselves trailing 3-0 after two first-period power play strikes from Reed Sayers were added to by a goal from Wildcats’ player-coach Aaron Nell in the 30th minute.
But, cometh the hour cometh the man, as the Knights’ captain stepped up to lead his team to victory.
Having got on the board in Sheffield, Brown was able to pull his team to within one goal by the end of the second period, striking first at 34.15 and then following that up with another goal just over three minutes later.
Within a minute of the restart the Knights were level with the skipper’s hat-trick marker, although the home fans were quickly silenced when Glenn Billing edged Swindon ahead again at 44.48.
But Brown came to the fore once again, hauling the Knights level again at 49.05, although he wasn’t quite done, bagging an assist on Matt Barron’s game-winning goal just over five minutes later.
The previous evening, the Knights produced a controlled performance down the M1.
Noah McMullin broke the deadlock with a fierce drive from just inside the Dogs zone at 11.50.
Jonathan Phillips then tapped home from close range on the power play four minutes later to pull the hosts level.
But once the Knights got ahead for a second time early in the third - MAtt Barron finishing off a slick power play goal at 20.58 - there was only going to be one winner.
Two goals in as many minutes effectively settled the game.
First, Fin Bradon finished off some smart work down low between Ethan Hehir and Innes Gallacher to make it 3-1 at 31.38 before Matt Bissonnette and Bow Neely combined to set up Brown at 32.53.
The impressive Bradon doubled up for the night when he made it 5-1 on the power play in the 52nd minute and although Nathan Ripley got one back five minutes later for the hosts, that was as close as they were able to get, the Knights extending their winning streak over the Steeldogs to eight games.
