Great Britain Under-16s came from 3-1 down to beat Netherlands U16s 10-5 in the international tournament in Dumfries Ice Bowl.
Kieran Brown, who was named man of the match, scored four times as GB set up a winner-takes-all showdown with Spain U16s tomorrow.
After early pressure from GB, Netherlands went ahead when Eruan Hendriks netted from the left-hand side at 5:21.
Tycho Hoaben scored on a five-on-three powerplay on the doorstep to make it 2-0 at 14:25, but GB hit back within 12 seconds when Brown’s backhand shot reduced the arrears (14:37).
Netherlands claimed a 3-1 first-period lead as Hendriks netted his second on a breakaway (19:17) to regain the two-goal advantage.
GB turned it around in the second session with four unanswered goals, started off when Patrick Larkin found space and fired into the top corner (21:21).
Moments after three successive penalty kills, Reece Cochrane’s neat finish at 30:43 tied the game at three.
Two powerplay goals saw GB lead 5-3 at the second intermission as Brown’s one-time blast from right point (34:34) was followed by Mason Biddulph reacting first to a loose puck on the doorstep (36:05).
Brown completed his treble after a great feed from Cade Neilson from behind the net (42:39) during a spell of four-on-four hockey and netted his fourth when he shot across the netminder from close range (46:32).
Tommy Huggett scored GB’s eighth at 50:11 when he broke down the left and fired short side, which was quickly followed by Neilson pouncing on the doorstep (52:12).
Netherlands scored two goals in the last five minutes through Joppe van Soest’s low finish (55:44) and Justin van Baarsen’s shot off the underside of the bar (59:58), with George Hoang netting from the slot for GB in between (57:41).
Assistant coach, Scott Plews, said: “We didn’t expect to have a slow start to the first period but we did.
“We played quite well but just made too many mistakes and the mistakes were penalised.
“The boys did well and got the job done in the end. They came out in the second period and did exactly what we asked them to do.
“They need to go back now and rest up and get ready tomorrow to come out. We can’t afford the same start tomorrow morning. We’ve got to be ready.”
The day’s first game saw Spain ease to a 17-1 victory over Belgium which means, like GB, the Spanish have won two out of two in Dumfries and they will meet tomorrow for the gold medal.