Great Britain Women were beaten 4-3 by Poland in their second game in the Olympic Preliminary Qualifiers Round 2 in Astana.

GB first came from 2-0 down and scored late to make it a one-goal game, but left themselves with too much to do and were beaten for the first time in the tournament.

Magdalena Czaplik’s low finish in front of the net put Poland ahead (11:58) and 21 seconds later Karolina Pozniewska made it 2-0 on the breakaway (12:19).

GB made a great start to the second period as Kimberley Lane poked the puck home at 22:41 and Shannon Douglas netted on the backhand (27:26).

But Joanna Strzelecka’s powerplay goal at 29:21 saw Poland take a 3-2 second-period lead.

Kamila Wieczorek scored a vital fourth for Poland (44:14), but a late powerplay for GB saw them reduce the deficit.

Captain Katie Henry converted Angela Taylor’s perfect pass (58:21), but GB were unable to draw level in a dramatic finale.

Coach, Cheryl Smith, said: “We played really well tonight and created lots of chances.

“We had the chances to win the game but we just couldn’t bury them.

“There were a couple of errors for their goals which is disappointing.

“We will skate tomorrow and get ready for the final game against Kazakhstan.

“We are still alive in this tournament. We just have to focus and go out and play to the best of our ability to stand a chance of going through.”

There are no games tomorrow in the tournament before GB play Kazakhstan in the final game on Sunday at 4pm (10am UK time).

With more matches still to be played in the tournament, it is currently unclear what GB will need to do to progress, but they know they will need to beat Kazakhstan to stand any chance of going through.

Photo credit: Dean Woolley.

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