DOWD: WE CAN KEEP BUILDING THROUGHOUT THE TOURNAMENT

Great Britain forward Robert Dowd believes the team can keep building throughout the World Championship in Latvia.

GB opened their Group A campaign this afternoon with a 7-1 defeat by Russia, who are ranked second in the world.

There’s a quick return to action with a second game in as many days as they face Slovakia tomorrow (10:15am UK time).

“I thought we got better each period,” said Dowd. “Obviously, we hadn’t played any exhibition games.

“We’ve only been together a few weeks and most of these teams have played a handful of exhibition games and played all season.

“I thought in the first period we were getting up to speed, second period we were solid and third period we were solid too.

“We played world-class opposition and of course they are going to score goals.

“If we can keep building, hopefully we can throw a few surprises in there. We want to play good hockey and collect a few wins.”