By Xanthe Boursier-Gazzard

The Bristol Honda Pitbulls encountered a 7-0 defeat last night against the Leeds Knights after a game that saw the home side unable to make a finish.

The home team continued to be without Rhys Smetham and were also missing import netminder Tommy Nappier heading into the game.

The away team opened the scoring early on into the first period with team captain, Kieran Brown, swooping in to direct a shot deep into the back of the net. Some close encounters followed in the next few minutes; however, Leeds got their second on the board through a penalty shot taken by Matthew Barron, who skated from centre ice down to the net, chipping the puck past the goal line, successfully scoring his awarded penalty. This wasn’t the last time we would see Barron light the lamp this period, however, as the puck was manoeuvred through a handful of messy exchanges and shuffled past Tyler De La Bertouche from Barrons stick to bring the score to 3-0 as the first twenty minutes came to an end.

Period two had a swift start for the Knights, with Mac Howlett ripping a shot deep off the back of Noah McMullins pass and Brown getting a chance on the powerplay and flicking the puck high to score once again for the away side. With Leeds dominating possession for the first five minutes of the period, the remainder seemed to be a lot more balanced, as both teams were presented with powerplay opportunities with shots coming from Reece Cochrane and Bayley Harewood for their home team. Despite several attempts from the Pitbulls to breakaway and deliver the puck to where they needed it to be, they were still looking for someone to make the finish at the end of the second.

The final period was underway, and Leeds seemed to continue their streak. Brown broke away from the Pitbulls offensive zone with the puck and fired a shot top shelf to get a hattrick as well as the sixth goal unassisted for the visitors. The Knights still had one goal in them to finish off the evening, with Ethan Hehir winding the puck around the right hand side of the goal and pushing it past De La Bertouche to finalise the score at 7-0, giving Harrison Walker a shutout game.

Man of the Match for the Knights went to Kieran Brown for his hattrick and to Tyler De La Bertouche for your Bristol Honda Pitbulls after facing 42 shots on net.

Image : Flyfifer Photography