GB with fate in own hands after third win

Photo: Dean Woolley

A third straight win at the 2023 IIHF World Championships took Great Britain to the top of Divison 1A with two games left to play.

A surprise result earlier in the day where Poland beat Italy knocked the pre-tournament favourites off top spot, leaving them with work to do in their final pair of matches.

GB came through against an always tricky Lithuania side with a 3-0 win on Tuesday night, the damage mainly being done in the first period as Cade Neilson fired in from the slot off a turnover inside two minutes. Liam Kirk's perfect pass to Robert Dowd set up his former Steelers teammate to double the lead shortly before the break.

A Nathanael Halbert empty-netter sealed the win in the third after some sustained Lithuanian pressure in the final 10 minutes. 

Great Britain face Romania on Wednesday at 7.30pm, although in Tuesday's post-game comments several members of the team noted they'll need to play better in their final two games to achieve promotion.

Should GB beat Romania, they would go into the final day's action on top and any result other than a regulation defeat to Italy would be enough to get promoted. Results in other games before then may, of course, change the maths before Friday evening.