Telford Tigers get off to flying start with opening day win
Head coach Tom Watkins has praised his 'fantastic' Telford Tigers players after their opening day win over Leeds Knights.
Goals from Louie Newell, James Smith, Joe Aston, Brynley Capps, Scott McKenzie and two from Tate Shudra secured the 7-4 victory on their travels.
For Watkins, he was delighted with both sides of Telford's game as they got off to a flying start in the National League.
He said: “What a good win on the road that was and a win in our first league game of the season.
"Everyone put in a huge performance and we saw lots of commitment and desire to battle hard. We competed well and we managed to block a huge number of shots.
"Our goaltending and defence were really solid, we scored some fantastic goals, a couple of brilliant individual efforts.
"But all in all, I just liked how committed we were. The team showed really good composure in the moments that didn’t go our way and we had the mental strength to bounce back and grind out a really good two points to start the season.”
The opening period of the season was a close one and it wasn’t until late in the period that the hosts took the lead, with Liam Peyton scoring to put the Knights ahead.
Telford equalised with just 12 seconds left on the clock for the first period. Newell picked up the puck low down in the left circle and skated behind the goal to the other side and slid the puck home before Sam Gospel in the Leeds goal could regain his position.
Midway through the second period, Leeds regained the lead through Kieran Brown. But, Tigers responded just over 30 seconds later to tie the game. Smith was able to lift the puck over the prone Gospel after a scramble in front of goal.
Once again Leeds went in front late in the period with a goal from Mac Howlett. Tigers responded with one second left on the clock for the second period! Superb passing between McKenzie and David Thomson set up Shudra to shoot into the open net for Telford’s third goal.
Leeds took the lead for a fourth time a minute into the third period with Arturs Mickevics scoring.
Telford regrouped and levelled the scores with 10 minutes left to play. Aston got the final touch to a pass from Rhodes Mitchell-King to beat Gospel.
With the game heading into the final six minutes Telford took their first lead of the night. A brilliant solo effort from Capps put Tigers ahead. Capps stick handled his way into the Leeds’ defensive zone taking the puck past two defenders and leaving them trailing behind. He then hit a superb wrist shot past Gospel to score his first goal for the club.
Within 30 seconds the lead was doubled. Shudra’s second of the night was on a par with Capps’ goal earlier. Shudra danced past the Leeds defence and shot past Gospel from a tight angle to put the visitors in control of the game.
Leeds called a timeout to stop the flood of goals but a Brown penalty for hooking gifted Telford a power play. The power play unit combined well with Capps sending a perfectly timed pass to the unmarked McKenzie to score Tigers’ seventh goal and seal a magnificent away win to start the season.
