Great Britain get their World Championship Division I Group A campaign under way today as they play Slovenia in Budapest, as they make their first return to world ice hockey’s second tier since 2013.
It’s the first time the two sides have met since 2012 and GB come into the game on the back of last year’s promotion from Division I Group B on home ice in Belfast.
Slovenia, who are ranked 15th in the world and played in this year’s Winter Olympics in Korea, were relegated from the top flight last season.
GB head coach Pete Russell has a fully-fit squad to choose from and eight players will make their full World Championship debut; Ollie Betteridge, Dallas Ehrhardt, Luke Ferrara, Mike Hammond, Liam Kirk, Brett Perlini, Zack Sullivan and Jackson Whistle.
Previous meetings since 2007
2012 WC Div 1B in Ljubljana, Slovenia L 2-3 Shields, Peacock
2010 WC Div 1B in Ljubljana, Slovenia L 3-4 (OT) Tait, Garside, J. Phillips
2007 WC Div 1B in Ljubljana, Slovenia L 0-4
There’ll be live TV coverage on FreeSports with Aaron Murphy and Paul Adey, as well as full-match radio commentary on the BBC Sport website with Seth Bennett.
Face-off is 12:30pm in Budapest (11:30am UK time).