Team GB suffer penalty shoot out loss to Norway in World Championship

Great Britain followed up their opening game loss against Czechia with a penalty shoot out defeat against Norway, after a stunning comeback to force overtime in the IIHF World Championship.

GB went into the tournament in Finland knowing the group that they are competing in is very astute company. Great Britain face the small task of playing Austria, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, USA and Czechia.

In the round-robin preliminary round, GB faced their opening match against Czechia on Saturday and suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Czechia.

After a goalless opening period, Czechia opened the scoring at 27:09 when Matej Blumel netted.

GB went close when youngster Cade Nielson hit the post. Czechia had a great chance to double their lead when they were awarded a penalty shot, but Roman Cervenka’s effort came off both posts with Ben Bowns managing to claw the puck back.

However, twelve seconds later it was 2-0 to Czechia when Jakub Flek scored. After 41:11 the hosts grabbed their third of the game with a David Jiricek’s one-timer powerplay goal.

A Jiri Cernoch rebound made it 4-0 before a two on one break was finished off by Matej Blumel at 48:28.

With a shade over 50 minutes on the clock, GB finally got on the board when Ben Lake scored with a backhand shot for a consolation goal.

Overall it was a spirited performance from GB who were up against the seventh-best side in the world.

Under 24 hours later, GB were back in action, this time up against Norway.

After 16:13 of the opening period, Norway were first on the board when Andreas Klavestad’s pass took a deflection past Bowns.

A goalmouth scramble saw the puck eventually trickle into the net with the goal credited to Mathis Olimb to give Norway a two-goal lead on 26:39. Olimb picked up his second of the game when his slap shot flew past Bowns on the powerplay to give the GB netminder no chance.

With GB under the cosh, they had a great chance to get themselves back into the game when they were awarded a penalty shot on 43:19, but Brett Perlini was denied.

When it looked like it wasn’t going to be GB’s day, queue a remarkable fightback. Two goals in 38 seconds put GB within touching distance of their opponents.

On 52:51 Robert Dowd scored on his backhand to give GB some hope before Evan Mosey’s wrap around saw a simple tap in for Perlini to bring G B within a single goal of Norway.

With four minutes of regulation time remaining, GB pulled level after Perlini set up Mark Richardson to slot home.

There was no further scoring in the third period, mainly thanks to Bowns making some huge saves, with the game eventually going to overtime. Still, the sides couldn’t be separated so we went into a penalty shoot-out.

It was down to the youngster Nielson who had to score, overwise Norway would win. Nielson on his 21^st birthday couldn’t get the present he would of wanted with a goal when his shot was saved.

The point from the game saw GB pick up their first point of the championship, with Sweden up next on Tuesday.

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