Great Britain made it two wins from two in the Olympic Pre-Qualification tournament in Cortina, Italy, on Saturday with a 6-2 victory over Serbia.
Colin Shields opened the scoring for GB after 4 minutes with his second goal of the tournament. The goal was his 34th International goal and made him the second highest GB goalscorer behind Tony Hand who has 40 goals.
“When I was growing up Tony was a legend in his own right, someone who we all look up to and who did a lot of great things for British hockey,” Shields said. “I’m still a few behind him but this is a proud moment.
“I’ve had a lot of years on the national team and played with some great players. A lot of good guys have passed me pucks and this is something to remember.”
After being on the wrong end of a 8-0 scoreline in their opening game, Serbia made it onto the scoreboard 8 minutes into this game. As Davie Phillips tried to clear the zone, the puck was intercepted by Andrej Zwick who found Nenad Rakovic to fire low past Stevie Lyle.
It took 3 minutes for GB to regain the lead thanks to Mattie Davies’ debut International goal. Rob Lachowicz carried the puck inti the zone before picking out Davies who left Arsenije Rankovic no chance in the Serbian goal.
The second period saw GB hit early penalty trouble and with 3 men in the box Serbia made the most of the 2 man advantage and netted their second of the night on 25 minutes.
Uros Bjelogrlic was the scorere, forcing the puck home at the far post.
Jonathan Boxill gave GB the lead once more just before the halfway mark. Shields fed Davie Phillips whose rocket fromthe blueline was tipped in by Boxillto make it a 3-2 game.
It was not Serbias time to hit penalty trouble and a 5-on-3 GB Powerplay saw David Clarke net his first of the game on 35 minutes when h pounced on a rwbound from Steve Lee’s initial shot.
Great Britain sat back on their 2 goal lead in the final period and were happy to keep the game in the Serbian zone.
Clarke netted his second of the night on 54.54 when another GB Powerplay saw Craig Peacock feed Clarke the puck to fire home.
With the clock running down it was left to Rob Lachowicz to score the final goal of the game on 59.37. Lachowicz broke into the zone before skating across the front of the Serbian goal and tipping the puck under Rankovic.