Great Britain were beaten 6-4 by top seeds Poland in a thrilling opening game at the men’s Under-18s World Championship Division II Group A in Sosnowiec.
GB, who were 3-0 down at the end of the first period, tied the game at 3-3 and 4-4 before two late Poland goals, including an empty-netter, secured the hosts the points.
Tymoteusz Petrazycki’s close-range finish put the Poland ahead (4:13) before Adam Sawicki fed Olaf Zachariasz to make it 2-0 on the powerplay (7:54).
Petrazycki netted from the right-circle (19:57) – also on the man advantage – to leave Poland in total control at the first intermission.
Jack Clarke buried a rebound (29:55) to close the gap and 36 seconds later, Jordan O’Brien’s wraparound attempt saw the puck sit on the line and Rhys Edwards bundled it over to bring GB within one (30:31).
GB equalised 41 seconds into the third period as a shot from captain Archie Salisbury took a deflection to beat Igor Tyczynski (40:41).
Wiktor Bieda’s shot deflected off Sebastian Wojciechowski to put Poland ahead again (49:53), but GB hit back again when Jake Hayward forced the turnover to set-up O’Brien on a two-on-one break (52:35).
Zachariasz scored his second of the night as he converted a close-range rebound (54:46) and then completed his hat-trick with an empty-netter (59:43).
GB are straight back into action tomorrow against Croatia.
U18 Men’s World Championship Division II Group A: Great Britain schedule
Wednesday 17th April: Great Britain 4-6 Poland
Thursday 18th April: Croatia v Great Britain 13:00 (12:00)
Saturday 20th April: Great Britain v Serbia 13:00 (12:00)
Sunday 21st April: Romania v Great Britain 13:00 (12:00)
Tuesday 23rd April: Great Britain v Netherlands 16:30 (15:30)