Great Britain Women’s dream of qualifying for the Winter Olympics for the first time ended with a 3-1 defeat by Kazakhstan Women in Astana.
GB needed to win the game by two goals in the final match of the Olympic Preliminary Qualifying Round 2 tournament, but came up short.
Kazakhstan, who won all three matches on home ice, will now advance to the next stage.
Galia Nurgalieva put the hosts ahead from close range in the first period at 3:44 and Daria Moldabai made it 2-0 on the powerplay (18:26).
After Kazakhstan had Karina Felzink thrown out for checking from behind, Katie Henry’s put away a rebound on the powerplay to close the gap to one (54:07).
GB lifted netminder Nicole Jackson late on for the extra skater and Tatyana Likhaus wrapped the game up into an empty net (59:06).
Coach, Cheryl Smith, said: “As a squad they have so much to be proud of but it just hasn’t gone our way.
“We played against two teams ranked higher than us in the world and ran them both close.
“The team did a lot right over the week but there are also things we know we have to work on.
“We have a very young side and their time will come in the future.
“The World Championship in Korea is not that far away and this has been great preparation for that tournament.”
Photo credit: Dean Woolley.
