GB lose opener to tournament favourites
8:45pm Monday 12th December 2011 in Sport By Nigel McFarlane
GB ICE HOCKEY:
Great Britain Under-20s lost 5-2 to Norway in their opening game at the World Championship (Division 1A) in Germany on Sunday.
GB took a two-goal lead thanks to strikes from Joey Lewis (EV Fussen) at 5:17 and Aaron Connolly (Slough Jets) at 9:03.
Norway hit back with goals from Ole Daniel Setsass (14:10) and Jonas Knutsen (17:55) to tie the game at 2-2 at the end of the first period.
Magnus Hoff scored the only goal of the second period (37:00) as Norway had a one-goal lead going into the third session.
Two goals in eight seconds proved to be GB’s downfall, Sondre Olden’s strike at 40:30 was followed by Hoff’s second of the game at 40:38.
Head coach Joel Poirier said: “We played with the highest-ranked team in the tournament for two periods, keeping it simple and keeping their attack to the outside.
”We lost our focus at the start of the third period and they scored two very quick goals.
“There are so many positives to take from the game and the guys now know they can compete at this tournament.”
GB’s second game of the tournament is against Slovenia.
