Great Britain is unbeaten in two games so far in Group J of the Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 3, after defeating Estonia 7-1 to set up a winner-take-all finale against Hungary.
Scott Conway and Brett Perlini each had a pari of goals, while Ben Bowns stopped 18 of 19 shots.
The British Lions came into the game looking to force a decisive round-robin game against the Hungarians, while Estonia needed a win to keep alive its hopes to advance after losing to Hungary in their opener.
The game was tight in the opening period. The Estonians weathered some early pressure from Great Britain and began to generate some scoring chances by clogging up the neutral zone and forcing a few turnovers and scoring chances om the home team.
Following a scoreless first period, Great Britain got on the board two minutes into the second frame, as Brett Perlini getting position in front of the net to tip in a shot by David Phillips.
Perlini’s goal was followed up by a one-timer blast from the point by forward Oliver Betteridge that put Great Britain up 2-0. Then just a minute later Dallas Ehrhardt passed the puck down to Scott Conway who came in from the left side of the Estonian net, feinted a cross-ice pass before slotting it home for the 3-0 lead.
A crisp passing sequence by the Brits on the power play ended up with another one-timer goal, this time coming from Perlini who scored his second of the game as Great Britain extended its lead to 4-0.
The Estonians stopped the bleeding and managed to grab some momentum thanks to a late goal from Alexei Sibirtsev. But Estonia was not able to mount a comeback in the third period, as Great Britain poured in three more goals in the third period to wrap up the 7-1 victory. Jonathan Phillips, Ben Lake, and Scott Conway rounded out the scoresheet.
With Great Britain sitting atop the group at six points and second-place Hungary next with five points, the final game of Group J between the two will decide which country will move on to the Final Olympic Qualification, and take one step closer to Beijing 2022.