D URHAM, UK – Great Britain flew out to Slovenia with the hope that they would be able to continue the great progress they made at last year’s Championship in the Ukraine. However Tony Hand’s side had a much tougher task on their hands this year as due to the re-organisation of the groups by the IIHF GB had five extremely tough opponents to take on during their week in Ljubljana.
GB took on the home nation on the opening night of the tournament in front of a partisan home crowd at the Stozice Arena on the outskirts of the Slovenian capital. Coach Tony Hand was unable to make this fixture as he was still in the UK as his club side Manchester Phoenix were involved in EPL finals weekend. Assistant coach Doug Christiansen took charge of the side and GB almost got the better of Slovenia as Colin Shields and Craig Peacock both caused a number of problems for the home sides defence however Slovenia were able to secure a narrow 3-2 victory.
The following day GB took on the highly fancied Austrians in the afternoon game. Austria who were able to include Michael Grabner of the New York Islanders on their roster raced into an early 3-0 lead. GB did manage to expose the Austrian defence on a few occasions as Colin Shields (2) and Corey Neilson both found the back of the net. However the Austrians just had too much quality in their ranks and they were able to collect all the 3 points on offer thanks to a 7-3 scoreline.
After two tough games in two days GB had a rest day before taking on the Ukrainians on the 3rd day of action. GB could go into this game full of confidence after beating Ukraine in their own back yard in last year’s Championships in Kiev. Ukraine had the majority of play in the first period and held a 1-0 lead after the opening session however GB showed their resolve to stride into a 3-1 lead through strikes from Robert Dowd (2) and a great shorthanded effort from Nottingham Panthers Matthew Myers.
Ukraine who had also lost both of their opening games were keen to get something out of the game and quickly tied the contest up at 3-3 so the match went into sudden death overtime. Shortly into the extra session of play Robert Dowd netted to give GB their first win of the 2012 World Championships to the delight of the large contingency of travelling fans from the UK.
GB faced Japan the following day in the lunchtime game. Japan had come into the tournament as the rank outsiders in the group however the Asian side had stunned the hockey world by beating Austria 4-3 on penalty shots the previous day while also giving hosts Slovenia a tough game. Japan continued were they had left off in their previous match against the Austrians and went into a 2-0 lead after only 13 minutes of action.
Japan increased their lead to four goals during the middle stanza as GB just couldn’t get their offensive game going at all. The game ended 5-0 to the Japanese and many GB fans were stunned at just how lacklustre the performance from their team had been after such an encouraging display against Ukraine in Britain’s previous game.
GB had a rest day after the Japan game which could well have helped coach Tony Hand galvanise his team ahead of his sides final game of the tournament. Given that Ukraine had beaten Japan on penalty shots GB knew that they needed at least a point from their game with Hungary to avoid relegation from the pool.
There were plenty of goals in the early stages of the contest as Jonathan Philips gave GB the lead with under 2 minutes of play gone before Hungary hit back to lead 2-1 at the 7 minute mark. GB showed great resolve to kill a 5 minute penalty after Corey Neilson had been ejected from the game and that successful penalty kill seemed to drive the team on. Robert Dowd (2), David Clarke and Owen Fussey all scored as GB edged out the Hungarians 5-4 to take the 3 points available and avoid relegation.
As always the GB supporters club gave out their player of the tournament awards after the final game – Matt Myers was named in 3rd place with netminder Stephen Murphy in 2nd and not surprisingly starlet Robert Dowd was named as the British player of the tournament. Shortly after the games had finished it was announced Dowd would be playing his hockey in Sweden next year, a move which caps an impressive 12 months for the young forward.
Contact the author at chris.mackenzie@prohockeynews.com
