Great Britain Under-18 Men were beaten 7-2 by France U18 Men in an international game in iceSheffield on Thursday afternoon.
It’s the first of two meetings between the two sides with GB and France also going head-to-head tomorrow.
GB trailed 3-0 in the first period but Brynley Capps reduced the arrears on a breakaway (15:52).
Kyle Carruth scored an out-of-this-world ‘Michigan’ goal under four minutes later, beating the defenceman off the wall with a smart move, cutting around the back of the net and lifting the puck on his stick past the netminder (19:32).
France showed their experience in the second period, scoring three times without reply and eventually skated to a 7-2 victory.
GB Head Coach, Sean Easton, said: “We felt the scoreline did not reflect the game. We had a shaky start with a lot of new players to international hockey and we were also missing the players with the under-20s, had three guys out injured and some that could not get back to the UK.
“Considering France are a pool 1A nation, we competed well with them and gave them a good game. France threw a lot of offence at us but we held strong.
“There was not long periods of offence for them and we broke well and had periods of offence ourselves. However, we didn’t create enough Grade A opportunities to win a game.
“Overall, for a team that’s just been thrown together and only two practices, under their belt, I was happy with the potential this team has shown today and look forward to seeing progression tomorrow.”