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Seahawks and Knights Split the Points in Pivotal Weekend in the League and Cup

Hull Reckitt Seahawks v Leeds Knights – 13/10/2024

A share of the spoils was the Hull Reckitt Seahawks’ reward after a defeat and a win in a league and cup double header against their Yorkshire rivals, the Leeds Knights, over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Seahawks took the short trip down the M62 to Planet Ice Leeds where goals from Owen Sobchak, Jason Hewitt and Johnny Corneil weren’t enough to overcome a Knights team determined to put two pre-season defeats to the Seahawks behind them.

The Knights won the game, 6-3, thanks to goals from Krisjanis Fuglalis, Noah McMullin (x2), Innes Gallagher, Matthew Barron and Matthew Bissonnette, and meant they and their fans would be full of optimism when they made the trip to Hull Arena on Sunday.

The defeat away at Leeds, not only cost the Seahawks two valuable points, it also resulted in a restless night for coach Matty Davies.

“I was very disappointed after last night, I didn’t sleep much,” said Davies.

However, thanks to the gritty performance of his team on Sunday, it wouldn’t be a second disturbed night for Davies, as the Seahawks edged a keenly contested game, 2-1, thanks to a brace from Lee Bonner and a player of the match performance from Dmitri Zimozdra between the pipes.

“Lee had a little bit of luck with his second goal, but it was fully deserved. His performance was simply brilliant. He is a Hull lad, and you can see how much it means to him when he gets those goals and we win matches,” said Davies.

The coach also had praise for Zimozdra, who faced down a Leeds front line that put 41 shots on his goal.

“Dmitri stood on his head tonight. He is such an experienced player, and he benefits us greatly when he has performances like tonight.”

In front of another sellout crowd, both teams went end-to-end to try and get the go-ahead goal in the first period.

In a finely poised contest, little was being done to calm the nerves of either fanbase who were both desperate to see their team seize the initiative.

The first 20 minutes would end in stalemate (0-0) with both forward lines unable to beat Zimozdra in the Hull goal or his counterpart, Sam Gospel, in the Leeds net.

In fact, the first goal of the game didn’t come until 23:08 when Bonner scored his first of the night with a powerful slap shot after good work down the middle of the ice by Emil Svec.

As the second period neared its conclusion, a two-minute penalty was called on Svec for boarding, at 39:16, and resulted with the Knights scoring an equaliser on the powerplay just seconds later through Mac Howlett, assisted by Bissonnette, to end the period 1-1.

Leeds had shown great discipline in the first and second periods with no penalties called against the team from West Yorkshire. However, this approach went out the window in the third period and resulted in six penalties being called against the Knights.

This would prove costly and, with the game entering the final five minutes, the Seahawks found themselves on the powerplay, with Jordan Griffin and Jordan Buesa both sitting two-minute penalties for cross checking and roughing, respectively.

The Seahawks had the opportunity to secure the win and took it, on 55:12, with Bonner scoring his second of the night, assisted by Svec and Sobchak, his shot found its way through a crowd of players and trickled over the line.

In a last-ditch effort to get something on the road, the Knights called a time-out, at 58:39, and pulled Gospel for the extra skater. However, they simply could not beat Zimozdra who saw out the game with a string of fine saves that would result in Leeds losing the match, 2-1.

Summing up the result, Davies said: “I’m really proud of the lads tonight. You need to turn up for big games, like these, and that’s what we did.

“After last night, we knew that shutting their lines down was key and, even though we were missing the experience of Dave (Phillips), we did that.

“This season is shaping up to be a real fight, especially at the top.

“Home form is so important at the moment, because everyone seems to be struggling away.

“In terms of the league, that is a good indicator of the levels we are now seeing.”

Next up for the Seahawks is another league and cup double, but this time at home to the Sheffield Steeldogs, on Saturday, and then a long journey down to Shropshire to face the Telford Tigers, on Sunday.

“Sheffield is a massive game and certainly one that we don’t want to lose. It’s not hard to get the team fired up to play them.

“I’m keen to see us raise the level of our performances on a Saturday, so the Steeldogs is as good an opponent as any to start with.”

By Mark Bateman