Great Britain began their men’s Under-20 World Championship Division II Group A campaign with a 4-3 victory over Spain in Bucharest.
Ben Clarke-Leach started between the pipes with Max van Mullem as back-up.
GB went ahead on the powerplay as Ricards Misins tipped-in a shot by Robbie Henderson (06:53) and Spain equalised when Juan Lacasta drove the net to meet a feed by Roman Morillas (18:24).
Joe Lynch set-up Henderson for a one-time blast from right-point (26:36) and a doorstep rebound by Bailey Yates made it 3-1 to GB in the second period (31:51).
Hugo Perez stepped into the right-circle to score on the powerplay to reduce the arrears for Spain (39:14).
Brynley Capps scored GB’s fourth as he came out from behind the net to beat netminder Guillermo Esteban (52:21).
Eduardo Gonzalez went coast-to-coast to score a superb solo goal (59:30), but GB had done enough and started the tournament with a win.
GB are straight back into action tomorrow (Monday 5th January) against Korea. Face-off is 12:30 (10:30 GMT).
GB schedule and results
Sunday 4th January: Spain 3-4 Great Britain
Monday 5th January: Korea v Great Britain 12:30 (10:30 GMT)
Wednesday 7th January: Croatia v Great Britain 16:00 (14:00 GMT)
Thursday 8th January: Great Britain v Romania 19:30 (17:30 GMT)
Saturday 10th January: Great Britain v China 12:30 (10:30 GMT)