Great Britain Face Olympic Silver Medalists In Slovakia

Great Britain open their 2019 World Ice Hockey Championships campaign today against Olympic silver medalists from 2018, Germany.

Pete Russell’s side begin their first tournament a the top-level since 1994 at (4.15pm local time, 1515 UK) in a game which will be broadcast live on FreeSports.

“We’ll go out there to try to frustrate Germany, but also be prepared to work as hard as we can and battle on every shift,” said GB assistant coach Corey Neilson.

“The big thing about this group is that they’ll never stop competing.” 

http://https://youtu.be/69ZysEhDRmk

Head coach Peter Russell says: “We’re in the toughest group we’ve ever seen, we have to take it a game at a time and not get too down on ourselves.

“We need to use each game to keep getting better within ourselves and learning as we go.”

GB’s team includes five Cardiff Devils players in goalies Ben Bowns and Thomas Murdy plus Matthew Myers, Evan Mosey and Mark Richardson.

Welsh players Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers) and Ben Davies (Guildford Flames) are also included.

A good luck message from former Great Britain coach Paul Thompson. Thommo led GB from 2007 to 2011, winning a silver and a bronze medal. pic.twitter.com/ZiQ8SRhBas

— Team GB Ice Hockey (@TeamGBicehockey) May 11, 2019

Opponents Germany surprised almost everybody when they made the Olympic final in PyeongChang, and almost took the gold medal. Team Germany have been able to call up defenceman Korbinain Holzer (Anaheim) plus forwards Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton) and Dominik Kahun (Chicago) from the NHL.

Their squad also includes plenty of players from Germany’s top tier, the DEL.

Finnish Head Coach Toni Söderholm is in his rookie World Championships as the main man behind the bench, having previously been on the national team coaching staff for the U20 team in an assistant role.

FREESPORTS: Watch GB against Germany live on @FreeSports_TV this afternoon (3:15pm face-off UK time) with @MurphOnIce and Paul Adey. pic.twitter.com/glirXB89YW

— Team GB Ice Hockey (@TeamGBicehockey) May 11, 2019

Germany have reached the quarter-finals in two of the last three years, with the most recent in 2017 being in their home tournament in Cologne.

Schedule for GB at the 2019 World Championship in Slovakia (face-off times local time).

Saturday, May 11: Germany v Great Britain 4.15pm

Sunday, May 12: Great Britain v Canada 8.15pm

Tuesday, May 14: Great Britain v Denmark 4.15pm

Wednesday, May 15: USA v Great Britain 4.15pm

Friday, May 17: Finland v Great Britain 8.15pm

Saturday, May 18: Great Britain v Slovakia 8.15pm

Monday, May 20: France v Great Britain 4.15pm

GB squad

Netminders

Ben Bowns – Cardiff Devils

Thomas Murdy – Cardiff Devils

Jackson Whistle – Sheffield Steelers

Defencemen

Tim Billingsley – Nottingham Panthers

Dallas Ehrhardt – Manchester Storm

Steve Lee – Nottingham Panthers

Evan Mosey – Cardiff Devils

Ben O’Connor – Sheffield Steelers

David Phillips – Sheffield Steelers

Mark Richardson – Cardiff Devils

Paul Swindlehurst – Belfast Giants

Forwards

Ollie Betteridge – Nottingham Panthers

Ben Davies – Guildford Flames

Robert Dowd – Sheffield Steelers

Robert Farmer – Nottingham Panthers

Luke Ferrara – Coventry Blaze

Mike Hammond – Manchester Storm

Liam Kirk – Peterborough Petes

Robert Lachowicz – Nottingham Panthers

Ben Lake – Coventry Blaze

Joey Lewis – ESV Kaufbeuren

Matthew Myers – Cardiff Devils

Brett Perlini – Nottingham Panthers

Jonathan Phillips – Sheffield Steelers

Colin Shields – Belfast Giants