Great Britain 5-4 Poland: Pete Russell’s side stay on course for World Championships promotion

Great Britain stayed on course for World Championships promotion in dramatic taste the day gone by once they wanted a sudden-death additional time winner to defeat Poland 5-4.

An exhilarating sport on the Nottingham Arena got here to the most efficient imaginable conclusion for GB when Ben Lake finished a super transfer involving Liam Kirk and Nathanael Halbert on the power-play with simply over two mins of the primary further duration final.

It capped a rollercoaster show in entrance of a packed crowd with Poland pushing the hosts the entire means on this 2d tier international event and finishing up desperately unfortunate to be on the mistaken finish of the outcome.

But for Britain this was once an enormous step in opposition to their function of returning to the elite of the ice hockey international at their first try with their 2d win of the weekend in entrance in their house crowd. Now they’ll have a break day sooner than taking on minnows Lithuania on Tuesday.

‘We knew this would be a tough game,’ mentioned Belfast’s Lake afterwards. ‘We took control in the second period but then gave up two goals and Poland never gave up.

Great Britain’s ice hockey team sealed a dramatic 5-4 win over Poland to keep themselves on course for World Championships promotion. Pictured: Liam Kirk

‘We just had to pull our socks up in overtime and get back to work and it was great to get the winning goal. Five games in seven days is hard work so we will rest tomorrow and then come back strong again on Tuesday.’

It quickly turned into transparent this could be no repeat of Britain’s comfy 4-0 win of their opener on Saturday towards Korea once they hardly needed to step out of 2d equipment.

Poland had been the simpler side for a lot of the primary duration, with their speedy attacking breaks steadily catching out Britain’s defence and leaving goalminder Ben Bowns compelled to return to the rescue.

But it was once Britain who took the lead thru their veteran captain Jonathan Phillips, who will retire on the finish of this event to absorb a brand new place managing an inclusion centre at a college in Chesterfield.

The 40-year-old spends a lot of his time on the fourth attacking line this present day however he was once in the suitable place to take a cross from Robert Lachowicz and direct the puck into the highest of the Polish web.

Any ideas of Britain, company favourites for the gold medal on this 2d tier World Championships crew, taking regulate briefly dissipated when Dominik Pas discovered a well past Bowns to equalise and enjoyment the massive contingent of Poland enthusiasts within the crowd.

Britain stepped up a degree in the second one duration and took the lead due to a second of natural elegance from Kirk who despatched a opposite cross around the ice for Cade Neilson to search out the again of the Polish web.

Pas have been the most efficient Polish participant by means of a long way however he blotted his copybook when he aimed an unpleasant hit from in the back of on Ben O’Connor into the forums in entrance of the Britain crew bench and was once banished from the ice with a sport misconduct penalty.

It additionally gave Britain the luxurious of a 5 minute power-play and Kirk straight away caught together with his 2d function of the event, following his opener towards Korea with a smartly taken effort to place the hosts 3-1 forward by means of the second one ruin.

That must were a game-winning lead for Britain however they bumped into penalty hassle within the 3rd duration and with O’Connor sitting out two mins for a harsh hooking name Poland fought their long ago into it with a power-play function from Pawel Zygmunt.

Kirk, Britain’s exceptional participant, hit the interior of the Polish post sooner than Kamil Walega tied issues up with Poland’s 3rd function and his 3rd level of the sport.

It seemed as despite the fact that Britain had sealed 3 issues for a win when Brett Perlini made it 4-3, once more on the power-play, after a shot from Mike Hammond was once in some way cleared.

But with simply 47 seconds left an extraordinary mistake by means of Bowns, who was once awarded the participant of the fit award, allowed Bartosz Fraszko to earn Poland what turned into some extent for an additional time loss having pulled their very own goalminder for an additional attacker..

Britain take two issues for the win in additional time however stay on course for one of the vital two promotion puts up for grabs on this event. 

They will wish to elevate on the successful addiction once they play Lithuania, Romania after which the opposite extremely ranked crew on this crew in Italy if they’re to ensure a go back to the elite they left closing 12 months.