Great Britain Under-18 Women slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of Italy Under-18 Women in the World Championship (Division 1 Qualification) in Katowice.
Netminder Molly Brooks (Nottingham) saved 32 of the 33 shots she faced as GB ran Italy very close in a hard-fought game.
Italy’s Alice Gasperini scored the only goal of the game on the powerplay at 3:28 in the first period.
GB had 20 shots on goal but could not find a way past Eugenia Pompanin.
Head coach, Sean Alderson, said “Today’s game was a big improvement on Monday’s game against Denmark.
“We went out and played for 60 minutes, which we didn’t do the other day.
“We generated a lot more offence and created some good scoring opportunities, but we just couldn’t find a way past the Italian netminder. She was equal to everything we threw at her.
“Molly (Brooks) did a fantastic job in net for us today. She made some big saves at key moments and it took a deflection on the powerplay to beat her.
“We’ll now look to build on today’s performance in training tomorrow and prepare for our game against Kazakhstan tomorrow night.”
In Tuesday’s other games, Denmark beat China 5-0 while hosts Poland defeated Kazakhstan 6-1.
GB’s game against Kazakhstan tomorrow faces-off at 7pm UK time.