Great Britain’s U20 side will win a medal at the closing ceremony on Friday – but they must wait to see if it’s silver or bronze.
Another come-from-behind win today – this time over Ukraine by 3-2 – made sure that Tom Watkins’ men would win a medal. Poland’s win over Slovenia in the evening game took away the chance of a gold, however it will be silver unless France beat Poland by four goals or more in Friday’s final match.
In today’s game, Ben Churchfield got the start in net after his 37 saves against France and all 22 players took to the ice despite several bumps and bruises keeping physio Gabby McGraw busy behind the scenes.
The early exchanges were fairly even before Ukraine went on the powerplay for the first time at 12.35. 90 seconds later Olexi Vorona lifted the puck into the roof of the net to open the scoring. GB had to kill another penalty later in the frame, but the interval came with just the one goal on the scoreboard.
GB tied the game with the only goal of the second period just after the half hour. Britain had just had their sole powerplay chance when Connor Glossop let fly from the face off circle – the puck appeared to hit goalie Bogdan Dyachenko on the facemask but play was not stopped. The loose puck was hit home by Michael Stratford for the game tying goal at 34.40.
Great Britain scored the goal of the game early in period three to get the lead. Harvey Stead and Callum Buglass played the puck out of defence to set Duncan Speirs loose on the right wing. Speirs skated in on net and lifted a wrist shot high into the net for his first goal in GB colours and a 2-1 GB lead at 43.15.
With just over ten minutes to play, the lead was stretched to 3-1. Macaulay Heywood gained the zone and let a shot go from inside the blue line – Dyachenko didn’t get his glove up in time and the puck went in off the cross bar at 49.50.
Any hope that GB could safely play out time was dashed by a second Ukraine powerplay goal five minutes from time. Ivan Radetsky was on the doorstep to poke the puck in after Ben Churchfield made the first stop. Harvey Stead was called for holding with 2.14 to play and – after a timeout – Ukraine lifted the goalie for a six on four finale.
The Brits in blue defended desperately but ultimately successfully and time ran out on a third GB win of the week and the guarantee of a medal in the final reckoning.
GB stayed to watch the evening game and saw Poland take any hopes of a GB gold with a 3-0 win over Slovenia.
With one day of games remaining on Friday, the IIHF U20 Division 1B standings are: 1. Poland 8pts, 2. GB 8pts, 3. France 5pts, 4. Ukraine 2pts, 5. Slovenia 1pt. Friday’s games are Slovenia v Ukraine (1530/1430 GMT) and France v Poland (1900/1800 GMT).
GB scoring: Heywood, Speirs, Stratford 1+0, Stead 0+2, Buglass, Glossop 0+1. Net: Churchfield 36 shots, 34 saves.