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.”
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