Great Britain to play for place at 2026 Winter Olympics

Photo: Dean Woolley

A 7-4 win over Romania saw Great Britain secure their place in the Final Olympic Qualification Round in August 2024.

It was GB's third straight win at the tournament hosted in Cardiff's Vindico Arena. Pete Russell's team are the only top seeded team in this round to advance to the final stage, after both Hungary and South Korea missed out.

Brett Perlini scored off an excellent Ben Lake pass to open the scoring with 8:07 played, although Otto Sándor responded 22 seconds later with a shot that deflected past Ben Bowns off Robert Lachowicz. GB were back ahead before the break thanks to the impressive Lake who was a stand-out performer on Sunday night.

Perlini made it 3-1 before Yevgeni Skachakov brought Romania back to within one, but goals in 48 seconds from Sams Jones and Ruopp put the hosts 5-2 up through 40 minutes.

Liam Kirk, and Cade Neilson beat Zoltán Toke either side of a Hugo Gecse goal, with the scoring rounded off by Matias Haaranen to make a final score of 7-4 for GB.

Great Britain last made the final round of Olympic Qualifiers in 2013. They will travel to Aalborg in Denmark this time, subject to final confirm at Monday's IIHF Council Meeting.