Telford Tigers 3-5 Leeds Knights: Tigers fall to late home defeat
Telford Tigers head coach Tom Watkins was pleased with the "character" and "commitment" that his side showed despite falling to a 5-3 home defeat against Leeds Knights.
Watkins' charges had collected three wins from their last four games in all competitions prior to the visit of Leeds Knights but remain locked on nine points with Berkshire Bees at the foot of the National Ice Hockey League table.
But Watkins felt his team produced a "strong performance" even if the final result was not what he desired.
“That was not the result we wanted but it was a strong performance," Watkins said.
"I was pleased with our commitment and character plus I thought special teams made a big difference particularly our penalty kill which is something we have been working hard to improve.
"We were two goals behind going into the third period and showed resilience and quality to tie the game.
"We can go to Leeds in our next game with plenty of belief knowing we can challenge them."
Leeds opened the scoring inside seven minutes when a shot from Matt Bissonnette deflected into the net off Brad Day's stick. But Tigers responded almost immediately as they restored parity within a minute of falling behind.
Scott McKenzie, who registered his 500th assist for the club, sent a pass into the slot where Fin Howells was there to latch on to it and smash home a wrist shot past Sam Gospel in the Leeds goal.
In a very tight contest, Telford were disappointed to fall behind when Bissonnette scored his second of the night with a shot over Day's glove.
And in the final two minutes of the period, Leeds doubled their advantage. A defensive turnover led to Leeds' most dangerous player Kieron Brown getting a free shot at goal and Brown hammered home a wrist shot to leave Day helpless.
Tigers pressed hard in their quest to fight back and they had a goal ruled out early in the third period when James Smith was adjudged to have made contact with Gospel before the puck went into the net.
Telford did eventually find the net courtesy of a long-range shot from Edgar Landsbergs who sent the puck flying past Gospel from the Leeds' blue line.
They were then rewarded for their relentlessness when Harry Ferguson pounced on Danny Rose's parried shot to turn home into the empty net from a power play.
Tigers went in search of a winner but ended up falling behind in the final five minutes. Bissonnette turned provider with a neat pass into the path of Matt Barron from behind the goal. Barron escaped the Telford defence and converted from close-range to restore the visitors' lead.
Leeds put the seal on the win in the final seconds after Day pulled away from his goal to add an extra attacker. Tigers fumbled the puck on the Leeds' blue line and Matt Haywood streaked away to score into the empty net and end the game as a contest.
