Great Britain are on their way to Slovakia for the World Championship in Kosice, the largest city in eastern Slovakia and the 2013 European Capital of Culture.
Head coach Peter Russell and his team play all their fixtures in Kosice, while their first base at Michalovce on the shores of Lake Sirava for a training camp.
GB play their final warm-up game against Slovakia in Poprad on Saturday (3pm UK time).
As well as on-ice practices, GB players will visit a local primary school, practice with local juniors and they have an official engagement with the Mayor of Michalovce and Andy Garth, the UK ambassador for Slovakia.
Andy Buxton, GB team general manager, said: “We go to Slovakia after four fantastic warm-up games in the UK and I would like to thank the thousands of supporters who gave us a great send-off over the past two weekends.
“We are about to embark on the biggest and most high-profile trip for GB in a generation.
I’ll just leave this here…@TeamGBicehockey @FreeSports_TV 📺🏒🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/oMWa6Z5H7Y
— Aaron Murphy 🎙 (@MurphOnIce) May 1, 2019
“The squad will, of course, spend a lot of time fine-tuning ahead of the World Championship, but they will also make links with the local community which I think is important.”
GB will play in their first top-flight World Championship games since 1994 when they face Germany, Canada, Denmark, USA, Finland, Slovakia and France from May 11 to May 20 in Group A.
Cardiff Devils have five players in the 25-man squad.
Ben Bowns, Thomas Murdy, Mark Richardson, Evan Mosey and Matthew Myers have all been selected.
Newport-born former Devils player Joe Lewis is among three players given their first World Championship call-ups, along with Tim Billingsley and Ben Lake.
Welshman Lewis now plays for ESV Kaufbeuren in Germany.
Cardiff-born GB captain Jonathan Phillips is also in the squad along with fellow Welshman Ben Davies.
GB World Championship 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