Great Britain came from behind to beat Croatia 4-2 in their second game at the men’s Under-18s World Championship Division II Group A in Sosnowiec, Poland.
GB went ahead thanks to strong work from Bailey Yates behind the net who fed Josh Crawley to beat Niksa Slade from close-range (9:19).
Croatia equalised just 20 seconds later as Lovro Kurjakovic forced a turnover and scored on a breakaway (9:39), while Patrik Marojevic did the same and broke clear to put his side ahead at the first intermission (17:5o).
GB levelled on the powerplay as Yates used his body to stop a puck leaving the zone and it fell to Brynley Capps who superbly went top-shelf into the corner from the left-circle (33:29).
British netminder Alfie Jefferis made a superb close-range save to deny Tin Hrvoj early in the third period
Great work from Owen Bruton created GB’s go-ahead goal on the powerplay as he raced into the offensive zone and his drop-pass set-up Brodie Kay to fire into the top corner (51:15).
GB killed-off a late penalty and under a minute later, Capps raced down the left-wing and his centering pass was met by Kay for his second of the afternoon (56:01) to secure the three points.
There’s no games in the tournament tomorrow but GB return to action on Saturday against Serbia.
U18 Men’s World Championship Division II Group A: Great Britain schedule
Wednesday 17th April: Great Britain 4-6 Poland
Thursday 18th April: Croatia 2-4 Great Britain
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)