Great Britain Under-20s were beaten 3-1 by Spain Under-20s in a warm-up game ahead of the U20 World Championship Division II Group A, which begins on Monday.
It was the first of two challenge games for GB, with a match against Lithuania Under-20s to come tomorrow (3pm UK time).
Spain led 2-0 thanks to a goal in both the first and second periods, before Mason Alderson Biddulph pulled a goal back for GB, assisted by Alex Graham (49:53).
The Spanish youngsters netted on the powerplay late in the third session to secure victory over 60 minutes.
To prepare for any game situation, the two sides then played three-on-three overtime with Cade Neilson scoring, while GB also won the penalty shootout.
Head coach, Martin Grubb, said: “The whole point of these challenge games is to allow us to make sure we can be prepared for when the tournament starts and tonight showed us we have some work to do.
“We have only had two practices as a team. We knew there was going to be some good things and some areas we need to work on. We are aiming to be better every time we step on the ice.
“We obviously wanted to win the game but we didn’t take our chances in the long spells we dominated and were punished by a hard-working and organised Spanish team.
“We now review and improve for tomorrow and look forward to the different challenge that Lithuania will pose us as we get ready for Monday.”
The World Championship Division II Group A runs from 6th to 12th January at the Pramogu Arena as GB begin the tournament against Japan on Monday, before facing Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Serbia.
All of GB’s games will be shown live on FreeSports with commentary led by Aaron Murphy and former GB forward Paul Adey.