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| The GB team at Para WCs 2024 (Photo by World Para Ice Hockey) |
The Great Britain sledge team had a difficult time at the Para Ice Hockey World Championships in Skien, Norway, last week, losing all 5 of their matches and being relegated to Pool C for next year’s competition.
They lost their first game – to previous Pool A team Germany - 23-1, with the only GB goal coming from Peterborough’s Gary Farmer and the assist from the Mayhem’s Karl Nicholson.
This was followed by an 18-0 drubbing at hands of host nation Norway before GB’s closest game of the tournament – a narrow 2-3 overtime defeat to France.
Two goals from Nicholson in the second period put GB in the lead after France had opened the scoring on 3 minutes but a late equaliser with just 80 seconds left on the clock sent the game into sudden death overtime.
Despite being outshot by 22 to 12 over the course, it was France who snatched the win with a game winning goal with 47s left to play.
GB’s fourth game was an 8-3 defeat to Kazakhstan with two more goals from Nicholson and a strike from Sheffield’s Ben O’Brien and the final game saw a 12 defeat to Sweden.
The week’s results overall saw Norway top the group and take the gold medal, meaning that they get promoted straight back up to Pool A, along with Germany who took the silver.
Sweden took the bronze medal but GB finished bottom of the 6-team group and will be relegated to Pool C for next year’s World Championship.
Mayhem’s Karl Nicholson finished up as GB’s top scorer for the tournament with 4 goals and 1 assist. Gary Farmer had 1 goal and 3 assists, Jon le Galloudec 3 assists, Ben O’Brien 1 goal and Stacey Quirk 1 assist.
Nicholson, le Galloudec, Farmer and Quirk all picked up one MVP award, as did the Mayhem’s Dean Lahan.
