Defenceman Josh Batch says it’s vital Great Britain stick to their systems if they are to continue to be competitive at the World Championship in Finland.
GB play their third Group B game of the tournament this evening as they face Sweden at 20:20 in the Nokia Arena in Tampere (18:20 UK time).
Sweden come into the game on the back of wins over Austria (3-1) on Saturday and Czechia (5-3) on Sunday.
“It’s another big test for us and another big game,” said Batch. “They beat Czechia the other night, so that proves how good they are.
“We watched the game as a few of the boys came down to see if there are any weaknesses we could exploit.
“We know it’s going be very tough but we just need to stick to our systems and see where it takes us.”
GB have positives to take from both their losses so far – a 5-1 defeat by the seventh seeds Czechia was followed by a point in a dramatic penalty-shot defeat by Norway.
“They were two great performances,” added Batch. “The Czechia game was always going to be tough, given that they are one of the best nations in the world.
“We spoke about the goals we gave up and a lot of them were mistakes we made ourselves. A lot of them are fixable which is definitely a positive.
“The second game against Norway we didn’t get off to the start we wanted after a quick turnaround, which might’ve had something to do with it.
“We came out in the second and definitely the third period with a lot more intensity.
“We scored the three goals to get us the point, but it does leave you wondering what if we had come out that way from the start.”
Britain were trailing 3-0 against Norway but third-period goals from Robert Dowd (52:51), Brett Perlini (53:29) and Mark Richardson (56:09) forced overtime, before GB were beaten in penalty shots.
Batch added: “After that first goal I was sat on the bench talking to Sam Duggan and I said ‘I got a feeling we are going to get more’.
“We are a team that feeds off emotion and energy. Once we had that we were rolling and it’s just unfortunate we could not get that fourth goal.
“But it’s certainly a point gained to turn it around from three goals down.”
Sweden against GB is live on FreeSports this evening. Commentary will come from six-time Olympic broadcaster Aaron Murphy and former GB forward Paul Adey who won 55 caps between 1995 and 2001, scoring 28 goals and contributing 24 assists for 52 points.
FreeSports is available free on Sky Channel 422, Virgin Media Channel 553, on Channel 64 on Freeview and BT and via the FreeSports Player.
Great Britain World Championship schedule and results
Saturday 14th May 2022 – Czech Republic 5-1 Great Britain – Goal: Ben Lake
Sunday 15th May 2022 – Norway 4-3 Great Britain (after penalty shots) – Goals: Robert Dowd, Brett Perlini, Mark Richardson
Tuesday 17th May 2022 – Sweden v Great Britain 20:20 (18:20 UK time)
Thursday 19th May 2022 – Great Britain v USA 16:20 (14:20 UK time)
Friday 20th May 2022 – Great Britain v Finland 16:20 (14:20 UK time)
Sunday 22nd May 2022 – Great Britain v Latvia 16:20 (14:20 UK time)
Monday 23rd May 2022 – Austria v Great Britain 20:20 (18:20 UK time)