Great Britain have won the bronze medal at the IIHF Under-18s World Championship Division II Group A in Tallinn.
A final-day 4-2 victory over Lithuania had given them an outside chance of promotion, but Korea clinched gold with a 9-0 victory over Romania while Estonia, who beat Serbia 7-0, had to settle for silver.
Korea and Estonia both ended the tournament on 12 points, but Korea’s 2-1 victory over Estonia on Friday proved decisive in separating the teams.
GB U18s Head Coach, Sean Easton, said: “It’s not the medal we came for but after two years out, beating the winners and only losing one game is a success on its own.
“They are a great bunch of guys. As the tournament went on we got better and better each game.”
In GB’s final game against Lithuania, they took the lead on the powerplay at 7:03 with Cain Russell potting home a rebound from close range.
Simas Ignatavicius scored the equaliser from the slot (12:07) moments after a lengthy GB penalty kill, including nearly a minute of five-on-three.
Britain regained the lead when Josh Shaw finished off a well-worked move between Jack Hopkins and Archie Hazeldine (14:09).
A tight second period followed with few clear-cut chances for either side, but Lithuania scored very late through a neat finish from Paulius Grybauskas (39:36).
Liam Steele made it 3-2 with a bullet of a shot just as a GB powerplay had come to an end (45:24) and Hopkins netted from close-range on the right-hand side after great work off the wall by Hazeldine (50:38).
GB U18s World Championship results
Sunday 3rd April – Estonia U18s 3-2 Great Britain U18s – Goals: Archie Hazeldine, Sam Cooper
Tuesday 5th April – Great Britain U18s 3-2 Romania U18s (after overtime) – Goals: Kell Beattie, Austin Osborn, Mack Stewart
Wednesday 6th April – Great Britain U18s 3-2 Korea U18s – Goals: Liam Steele, Jack Hopkins, Mack Stewart,
Friday 8th April – Serbia U18s 0-8 Great Britain U18s – Goals: Carter Hamill 2, Mack Stewart, Liam Steele, Jack Hopkins, Kieran Chung, Ben Brown, Dawson Osborn
Saturday 9th April – Great Britain U18s 4-2 Lithuania U18s – Goals: Cain Russell, Josh Shaw, Liam Steele, Jack Hopkins