Top division welcomes Team GB after beating Hungary in B-final
Next year, the Britons will fight against the best teams in the world. After a tough battle, they beat Team Hungary 3-2 in the final game of division I at this year´s World championship and they are promoted to top division.
| Game no. 43 • bF • Sat 25/6/2011 • 12:30 • Schedule and results | ||
|---|---|---|
Great Britain |
3:2 |  Hungary |
| (2:0, 1:2, 0:0, 0:0) | ||
| Tanner - Walsh, Clarkson, Hendy, Finney, Dolan, Hamer, Waller, Viney, Clarkson, Niamatali, Pearman, Hutchinson | T. Kiss - Revak, Bontovics, Orban, Lencses, Kordisz - A. Kiss, Rafaj, Fekecs, Szappanos, Feil, Borbas, Pilcsik, Dancsfalvi | |
| Goals and assists: 6. J. Clarkson (Viney), 11. Finney, 15. Waller (Viney) - 19. Borbas (Revak), 23. Szappanos (Lencses, Feil) | ||
| Shots: 26:29
(3:12, 7:8, 8:5, 8:4).
Penalties: 4:4.
PP goals: 1:0.
SH goals: 0:0. Refferees: Dreger (USA), Erd (AUT). Audience: 200. |
||
 Live coverage on onlajny.cz | ||
Game report
It was a terrible start to the gold-medal game for Team Hungary. Great Britain dominated on the floor and scored three times. In the sixth minute, Jack Clarkson shot a rebound into the open net and Nathan Finney in 11th minute succeeded on a great individual effort.
And then in the 15th minute, Kurt Waller added power-play goal. "We were very close to an overall win but Team GB was a very tough opponent. The British were skating and fore-checking very well," declared Team Hungary forward Gergely Borbas after the game.
Late in the first half, the Hungarians scored twice to cut the difference to one. Gergely Borbars scored a lucky goal and then four minutes later David Szappanos brought his team close to even.
However, in the second half no goals were scored. Team GB even failed on two penalty shots. Both goalies played great games. "For me, it is a dream come true. I have been waiting for this for seven years. I didn´t expect to win the individual award as the standard of goalkeeping at this tournament has been great," said James Tanner, the best goalkeeper of the B-championship.
Team GB celebrated the gold medal for a long time. It earned a position in the top division for next year, too.
Author: Tomas Pavlicek
Game reactions
Andrew Sillitoe (Team GB coach):
At 3-0 up, some of the guys maybe thought our lead is going to grow as it did in previous games, but you cannot afford to be complacent in the final. It´s done. We have worked on this since 2004, continuously building the team and mixing youth with experience. Our ultimate goal for next year is to stay in the division, as we will be playing against professional players.
Tamas Dobos (Team Hungary coach):
Unfortunately, the beginning of the game was very bad for us. In the intermission I made a speech to the players and then we improved our game. We were fighting to the end and we are happy with our silver medals.
