Great Britain set up a winner-takes-all showdown with Hungary tomorrow evening by beating Estonia 7-1 at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham in their second game at the Olympic Qualifying.
Ollie Betteridge and Scott Conway scored their first GB international goals, while Robert Farmer was awarded his 50th cap.
After a scoreless first session GB netted four times in the second period to take a stranglehold on the game.
Brett Perlini tipped in Davey Phillips’ shot (23:30) and Betteridge’s fantastic one-timer from just inside the blueline made it 2-0 at 28:26.
Conway scored through the five-hole 52 seconds later (29:18), Perlini grabbed his second with a one-timer from the top of the circle on the powerplay (32:43), before Aleksei Sibirtsev got Estonia on the board (38:56).
Ben Lake tipped in GB’s fifth on the powerplay (48:40) and it was 6-1 within 24 seconds as Jonathan Phillips swept the puck home from the left circle (49:04).
Luke Ferrara’s perfect pass found Conway who jumped into the play to fire in his second (54:47).
Head coach, Pete Russell, said: “I thought the last two periods were really good.
“I wasn’t really happy with the last 10 minutes of the first, but we were very strong in the end.
“It was a packed crowd tonight and a great atmosphere. We had amazing support from our fans.
“We are looking forward to Hungary tomorrow. It will be a different type of game and we must rest now ahead of a massive day.”
GB play their final game tomorrow against Hungary (6pm) with the winners advancing to final qualifying in August for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.