Knights Stand Tall after weekend sweep of Palm Beach

If the Knights and the respective leagues, the MJHL and SEJHL, were looking for a mid-season barometer of where the teams stand, the Knights put and exclamation point on their bragging rights.  In what was billed as a battle of the league leaders, the Knights collectively put and end to any speculation as to their position in junior hockey.

Both Knights teams took their lofty top five national ranking into Palm Beach to take on the resurgent and tough Palm Beach Hawks.  Both Hawks teams were near the top of each respective league with just a pair of losses and a few points behind the Knights.  The explosive and physical Hawks had similar records against other Knight opponents, setting up what was expected to be a battle for league supremacy.   The Knights, however, had different plans.

In game one, the Knights Selects battled through some early game jitters and road fatigue, but took an early lead.  The relentless fore-checking and defensive orientation of the young Knights took its toll on the hosts, with a punishing 8-1 victory.   In game two, the Senior Knights held off and early attacking Palm Beach team, but reversed roles and beat the MJHL Hawks, 7-0.  Goals by Trevor Cope (Boyd) and  d (Cope, Conklin) paced the Knights to a first period 2-0 lead.  Newly acquired Defenseman Jordan Passino scored his first goal (d, Cope) and second goal (Lansdowne, Cope) and Jordan Day added his first hattrick of his junior career to pace the Knights to a dominating victory.

Sunday morning at the Skate Zone brought similar results.  The Knights Selects took and early 3-0 lead, survived a penalty filled game the masked the Knights efforts and doomed the fast flow of the game that defined the first game of the weekend.  With the win, the surging Knights took a commanding lead in pursuit and an unprecedented third consecutive league title and bid for the USAH Junior National Championships.  Not to be outdone, the Knight Elites traded goals with the Hawks in the first period and early second period.   d (Cope) put the Knights up 17 second later and the Knights never looked back scoring 5 unanswered goals to put the game away with a tidy, if not efficient, Knights 7-2 win.  

The Knights have little time to celebrate their mid-season statement.  Both teams go on the road next weekend to Raleigh for a pair of games with the East Coast Eagles.  Both SEJHL and MJHL match-ups will be carried live on Fasthockey.  The young Knights will take a short break before heading to Canada to defend their 2008 crown in the Paul Coffey Junior Invitational.  The Elites will take a much needed break and will not return to action until January 2^nd, with home games against the Charleston Wolverines at Knights Arena at the MIC.