Great Britain Under-20s have a chance to win the silver medal at the U20 World Championship Division II Group A after a final-day 5-2 victory over Serbia Under-20s in Vilnius.
Going into the final round of matches GB had already assured themselves of at least a bronze, with Japan and Lithuania fighting it out for gold and promotion. If Lithuania fail to beat Japan in today’s final game, Britain will secure silver.
GB led 2-0 at the first intermission thanks to a neat finish from Sam Russell on the powerplay (14:23), while Ed Bradley cut inside from the right to fire past Bojan Vasiv (16:59).
Serbia drew level with a pair of powerplay goals through Marko Mladenovic (22:41) and Aleksa Gvozdenovic (34:29).
Third-period goals from Alex Graham (50:37), Finley Ulrick (56:53) and Cade Neilson from a feed behind the net (59:24) wrapped up GB’s fourth successive win.
Head coach, Martin Grubb, said: “I don’t think it was our best performance. We started well but we got a little loose.
“Credit to Serbia for the way they came back, but we talked in the room at the end of the second period that good teams find a way to win.
“We wanted to play for the nation – for the people here and the people back home. We wanted to progress, four wins out of five is a progression, but we still want to be better
“It is still tinged with sadness that we underachieved as we weren’t going for a gold medal, but credit to the players as they have showed huge character throughout the tournament.”