Great Britain’s hopes of staying in the world’s top flight of ice hockey were dealt a severe blow by a crushing 5-0 defeat against Hungary on Tuesday night.
Ben Bowns made an early pad save to deny Csanad Erdely, but Hungary went ahead just over two minutes into the game when Krisztian Nagy scored short side from the right circle.
Josh Waller twice shot just wide from the slot, while Nathanael Halbert was denied by the pads of Bence Balizs as GB found momentum around the midway point of the opening period.
Hungary doubled their lead late in the first when good movement in the offensive zone ended with Dominik Szongoth scoring on his backhand with 1:46 remaining in the period.
A shorthanded goal early in period two extended Hungary’s advantage to three. Istvan Terbocs broke away to score, leading to Bowns being pulled and Mat Robson e/ntering the net,
Erdely then broke clear of the GB defence, but Robson made a big save with his skate before Joe Hazeldine cleared the puck off the line.
Cade Neilson shot just over from the slot as GB pushed back, and the Brits had a flurry of chances on successive powerplays. Liam Kirk went close twice, while Waller saw a shot ping off the top of the crossbar.
GB killed off a penalty either side of the second intermission, and Robson made a good pad save on Janos Hari just as the Hungary powerplay came to an end.
Johnny Curran was denied on a breakaway and, at the other end, Robson turned away efforts from Erdely and Szongoth on another Hungary powerplay.
Hungary sealed the game with two goals in 41 seconds late in the third period. Terbocs shot across Robson on a two-on-one break before Nagy scored from the slot less than a minute later.
GB have no game tomorrow and return to action on Thursday against hosts Switzerland at 20:20 local time (19:20 BST).
Photo: James Assinder
