In the end, the Knights, playing without captain Claude Mossong and veteran Benny Welter managed to walk away with an easy win. Goals were scored by David Shorty Müller - a hattrick, including another penalty shot goal - Raoul Kramer and Artemij Frizel.

 

Then on Sunday, the Knights played for their fate in the Belgian championship. It was a crucial game for the standings in the Division 1 which will split into A and B after the first round ending on December 16. A point was needed to keep the Knights' chances of playing in Division 1A and, as a result, the championship alive. Unfortunately, that point was necessary against the top dog in the league, the Leuven Chiefs, in Leuven, on Sunday, at 9 pm. The Knights could only travel with 12 players to Leuven given the late time of the game. Crucially, their current leading goal scorer Shorty Müller, couldn't travel with the team.

 

The Knights like the underdog role and it helped them to play in an entertaining and competitive game to the end, even if it didn't start that well. The Chiefs, with their high flying offense - three very strong forward lines, top scorers in the Belgian Division 1 with over 120 goals - peppered goaltender Michel Welter with shots, 33 in the first period. Even though the Knights had the first 4 shots and seemed to be able to compete, it was the Chiefs that struck first at the 7 minute mark. In a small flurry, they then scored 3 more goals in 59 seconds to take a commanding 4-0 lead. It announced itself to be a long night for the Knights.

The flurry continued early in the second and at the 22 minute mark the score was 6-0 for the hosts from Leuven.

But then something changed and the Knights started to play clever defense by clogging the slot and playing a man high for counter attacks. The veteran line of Benny Welter, Claude Mossong and import Artemij Frizel then had several 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 chances but simply couldn't convert. The game started to be more and more competitive and the Knights just weren't giving up. Unfortunately a bad bounce in the final seconds of the period ended in the back of the net and the Chiefs seemed to be safe with a 7-0 lead after two periods.

 

But the resilience of the Knights and the willingness to save what turns out to be an unlucky and unfortunate season persisted and they came out flying in the third. The veteran line started clicking and had several more of those dangerous break-aways, this time converting on 4 unanswered. Benny Welter found the back of the net at a high speed on a perfect feed from Claude Mossong while his brother finished building that brick wall in his own net, not letting anything get through anymore. At the 50 minute mark, there was more hope when Frizel scored on a pass from Welter. Two minutes later, Welter again, taking the rebound from Dylan Cardoso to get the Knights within 4. Two more minutes and Frizel scored again. The Knights were mounting a huge comeback. And then, the refs woke up and called a couple of penalties on the Knights to put them on a 3-on-5 penalty kill and the comeback was stifled. The Knights came up short on their comeback but managed to score 4 goals to win the period 4-0 against a mighty opponent that beat every other of the 10 teams in the Division 1 by a minimum of 8 goals, eight teams of which by double digit goals. The Knights were competitive all season, but couldn't manage to get out of their own way, competing against the strongest team and losing against what should have been weaker opponents. The fact that they played double the amount of games than they had practices for the season clearly didn't help.

 

In the end, Michel Welter, man of the game, made 90 saves on 97 shots in that game. Even more impressive: 137 saves on 145 shots for the weekend, he clearly does deserve his nickname "the Wall".

 

With one more game remaining in the Division 1 this coming Saturday, the Knights already know their fate and will be playing Division 1B in January, playing 10 more games against the 5 opponents in the bottom half of the current standings. They will battle for promotion back into Division 1A and they will be playing to entertain their fans who want to see their Knights win!