Austria 2 Great Britain 4: GB exit Prague on positive note by soothing World Championships heartache

Hurting from the previous day’s 5-2 defeat to Norway – a sixth straight loss which sealed their immedisate return to Division 1A – Pete Russell’s team responded superbly to defeat Austria 4-2 at Prague Arena.

While the result made no difference to GB’s final position in the Group A table, there was plenty on the line for their opponents who went into the game still in the running for a quarter-final place.

A regulation win for Austria would have left second seeds Finland needing a point from their final game against Switzerland.

The surprise vulnerable status of the Finns had come about mainly because of their earlier 3-2 defeat to world No 16 Austria, who were also the only team to have taken a point from defending champions Canada in a 7-6 overtime defeat.

For GB, there was nothing but pride to play for.

But it proved enough of a motivating factor and saw captain Robert Dowd get his wish of hearing the national anthem playing out at least once at this tournament before heading home.

“It would have been easy to fold the tent and not show up today,” said former Sheffield Steelers’ defender, Ben O’Connor. “It showed credit to our group and our character that we wanted to come in and end it on a positive note.

“We’re not afraid when we’re down. We’ve shown in the past we’re resilient and keep fighting to the end. We wanted to end on a positive note. Getting demoted wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we can hold our heads high.”

The hopes of ever being on a level playing field with the likes of Canada, Finland and Sweden on a regular basis are a long way off – if at all ever possible – but this year again there have been positive signs.

The way Russell’s team pushed No 1 seeds Canada in a 4-2 defeat in their opening game and how close they came to beating world No 11 Denmark before falling to an agonising 4-3 loss indicate hope.

And in their last game of the tournament, GB finally got what they deserved. They did it the hard way, though, missing forward Liam Kirk through illness and having to come from behind to take three points.

After a goalless first period, Austria went ahead when Clemens Unterweger’s slap shot beat Ben Bowns for a power play goal at 22.40.

But GB then benefitted from a power play situation of their own. Finding themselves with two full minutes of 5-on-3, they took advantage when O’Connor – impressive throughout the tournament – blasted one past David Kickert from long range at 27.44.

It was another power play effort that got GB ahead early in the third, Brett Perlini firing home from close range at 41.59.

As Austria scrambled desperately for a way back to keep their tournament alive beyond the group phase, GB struck again through Evan Mosey’s close-range finish at 50.25.

In desperation, Austria pulled Kickert with over four minutes remaining.

Six seconds later, however, Perlini won a face-off in his own zone, the puck fell to Dowd who fired it into the empty net – ending any concerns there may have been of a repeat of the game between these teams two years ago when Austria came from 3-1 down to win 5-3 and send GB down.

They did pull one goal back - a power play effort from close range by Mario Huber - but there were only 45 seconds remaining and GB were home and dry, minutes later lining up alongside one another to gaze up to the rafters as ‘God Save the King’ belted out around the building.