Going into this weekend the TSI World Bees face a 1 game weekend against the Leeds Knights at the Slough Ice Arena on Sunday and will see the return of players back into the lineup.

Due to the IIHF Under 20s competition taking place in Dumfries, Leeds will find themselves competing without Forwards Finlay Bradon and Oli Endicott as well as defenseman Bailey Perre. This competition will not affect the Bees as no players from the Bees’ lineup will be making the trip up to Dumfries to take part in the U20s. 

The Bees will be without brothers Harvey Stead and Will Stead this weekend due to suspensions. However, they will see the return of Brython Preece to the ice after missing the 2 games from last weekend as well as the return of Josh Kelly who has not iced for numerous weeks. In addition to these 2 players returning we all see the return of Joe Baird to the lineup.

The Leeds Knights currently sit in 2nd within the league standings and are on 30 points from winning 15 games and losing 3 games. They have secured roughly 84% of all the points on offer to them so far this season. It was only last weekend due to a loss against the Milton Keynes Lightning in a 4-1 game at Planet Ice Milton Keynes that they ended their 9 game winning streak. 

The execution of the power play unit at Knights’ is roughly 23% effective through using 16 power plays out of 69 and this will be something that Ryan Aldridge will want to improve. Their penalty kill is roughly 85% effective and it will be vital for the Knights when taking on the Bees’ power play unit.

The Knights have had a total of 524 shots against them in 18  games and are averaging around 29 shots on goal against them. They have also managed a total of 593 on opposing teams netminders and are averaging 33 shots on goal. There have been no short-handed goals scored against the Knights in games completed but the Knights have managed 5 short-handed goals against opposing teams and 3 of those goals have been scored between Kieran Brown and Dylan Hehir. 

Going into this weekends game, the TSI World Bees need to be aware of Kieran Brown of course as in 18 games he has managed a total of 44 points by scoring 26 goals and totaling up 18 assists. He is a massive part of their power play unit as he has scored 6 of their power play goals this season. Defensively, the Bees will need to watch out for Bow Neely who has a big impact within the neutral zone for turn overs of the puck and great with interceptions. He has collected a total of 9 points from 1 goal and 8 assist but will be someone within the lineup going into this weekend that will have to step up due to the loss of 3 players in the lineup.