A third straight win at the 2023 IIHF World Championships took Great Britain to the top of Divison 1A with two games left to play.

A surprise result earlier in the day where Poland beat Italy knocked the pre-tournament favourites off top spot, leaving them with work to do in their final pair of matches.

GB came through against an always tricky Lithuania side with a 3-0 win on Tuesday night, the damage mainly being done in the first period as Cade Neilson fired in from the slot off a turnover inside two minutes. Liam Kirk’s perfect pass to Robert Dowd set up his former Steelers teammate to double the lead shortly before the break.

A Nathanael Halbert empty-netter sealed the win in the third after some sustained Lithuanian pressure in the final 10 minutes.

Great Britain face Romania on Wednesday at 7.30pm, although in Tuesday’s post-game comments several members of the team noted they’ll need to play better in their final two games to achieve promotion.

Should GB beat Romania, they would go into the final day’s action on top and any result other than a regulation defeat to Italy would be enough to get promoted. Results in other games before then may, of course, change the maths before Friday evening.

Photo: Dean Woolley

Great Britain’s third game of their home IIHF world Championships Division 1A campaign sees them face Lithuania on Tuesday evening at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham.

After two wins and a rest day, Pete Russell\s team face the group’s joint-basement side as they look to keep their hopes of promotion firmly in their own hands. Lithuania have lost both of their games so far, having scored only two goals and conceded 10.

Lithuania have proved to be tricky opponents for GB across a number of years. They won both friendlies in the run-up to the 2018 World Championships where GB won promotion to the elite group, and while in competitive meetings GB have won the last two, long-term fans will remember the 3-2 defeat in 2015 which cost GB promotion to Division 1A.

Earlier in the day, leaders Italy will face third-placed Poland. The result of that game could go a long way to determining what Great Britain need to achieve in their remaining fixtures to secure promotion.

You can follow the game live on Viaplay Xtra with Aaron Murphy and former GB player Paul Adey, with faceoff at 7.30pm. Viaplay Xtra is available on Sky channel 420 and Virgin 553.

Great Britain’s hopes of an immediate return to the top level of world ice hockey remain on track after two wins from two in their opening fixtures at the 2023 IIHF World Championships Division 1 A tournament in Nottingham.

After the opening-day blanking of Korea, Pete Russell’s side came through against a tricky Team Poland in overtime to stay unbeaten. Having gone 3-1 ahead in period two thanks to Cade Neilson and Liam Kirk, GB saw that two-goal lead evaporate in the third, with Kirk’s hitting of the post at 3-2 a chance to put the game to bed. A late powerplay set GB up for the chance to win it late, which they took when Pawel Dronia’s attempted clearance saw him fire the puck into his own net with 90 seconds to play. A late Polish equaliser that looped over Ben Bowns saw the game head into overtime, but a wonderful passing play set up Ben Lake for the winner at 62:35.

With two regulation wins from their opening pair of games, Italy lead the standings, followed by GB a point back and Poland on four points. GB play Italy in their final game, but know wins against Lithuania and Romania before then should see them already promoted.

Photo: Dean Woolley