GB U18 To Face NIHL Blaze

Great Britain Under-18 Men will take on a Coventry Blaze NIHL Select side as part of their preparations for the upcoming World Championship.

The game will take place on Tuesday 2nd February 2016 at the Skydome Arena (face-off 8:15pm).

The two sides met last year as part of GB’s 2015 World Championship preparations and GB skated to a 10-1 victory.

GB will base themselves at Ice Sheffield on the 2nd and 3rd February for a two-day camp, with the game against the Blaze giving them vital match practice.

Head coach, Martin Grubb, said: “This game against Coventry will give us an opportunity to see the players in a competitive game and help us with game time together before the tournament.

“There will be some of our overseas players missing, but we will use our wider squad so that we can still work on our systems.

“This game will allow us to step up our preparation ahead of the championships and it will be great to get the players together and get to work.

“We would like to thank Coventry for putting on this game as it helped us last year and we hope it will do the same this year and we are all looking forward to it.”

NIHL Blaze head coach, Ian Pound, said: “We are very much looking forward to the GB U18s playing in Coventry as preparation for their upcoming World Championship tournament.

“It will allow the GB staff to look at various line combinations and systems.

“We are very proud to have local Coventry player Jordan Stokes appearing in the Great Britain colours for the first time and I know he’s very excited as well.

“The opposition will be made up of various ENIHL players and possibly a couple of local Elite League players.

“Some of these, having played at the GB 18s level themselves, always enjoy helping out the GB programme in any way they can.”

Admission will be free for the game on Tuesday 2nd February (8:15pm).

GB U18s, who won a bronze medal at last year’s tournament in Estonia, travel to Brasov for their 2016 Division 2A World Championship tournament from 4th to 10th April.

As well as facing hosts Romania, GB will take on Croatia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Poland.