Great Britain get World Championship campaign off to winning start against Ukraine

Pete Russell’s team – featuring Sheffield Steelers’ duo Rob Dowd and Cole Shudra and debutant Kieran Brown of Leeds Knights – are among the favourites to secure a top-two finish in Romania and with it an immediate promotion back to the top tier of the world game in Switzerland next year.

But they surrendered a 2-0 lead and had to come back from a goal down to force overtime before eventually prevailing in the shoot-out after Ben O’Connor and Ben Lake scored, while Rotherham-born netminder Ben Bowns saved all four Ukraine attempts to secure a vital two points.

"It wasn’t pretty, we knew that coming in that there was going to be some rust,” said O’Connor afterwards. “We had a three-day camp, six practises, no (warm-up) games and it always takes a bit of time.

"But I thought it was a typical GB performance. It wasn’t going well but we battled, we’re resilient

“We were down in the third there, had the no-goal call but we just kept on fighting and pushing and that is what we’ve built in that dressing room over the past 15 years – that we don’t quit.

“It wasn’t pretty, there’s going to be a lot of video and a lot of areas that we need to tidy up on, but we fought through and we got the win.”

Bradford-born forward Brown was one of three players making their senior debuts in front of a 2,100-plus crowd at the in Sfântu Gheorghe, the Knights’ captain marking his debut in style with an assist on Brett Perlini's second period goal.

Early on, Bowns produced a good pad save to deny Olexander Peresunko and Ollie Betteridge made a great diving block as Ukraine made a strong start, which also saw Igor Merezhko hit the pipes for Ukraine on the powerplay.

But Russell’s team grew into the period the longer it went on and moments after Logan Neilson hit the base of the post, Josh Waller tipped in Nathanael Halbert’s shot for a one-goal lead with 11.08 on the clock.

Brown then made it a debut to remember when he registered his first senior point when he fed O’Connor off a face-off win in the Ukraine zone, the former Sheffield Steelers defenceman’s shot being tipped past Alexander Levshin by Perlini less than two minutes into the second period.

But Ukraine were level before the end of the middle section when Viktor Zakharov’s breakaway strike at 25.45 was followed seven minutes later by Danil Trakht’s effort from the left circle.

Russell shortened his bench in the third period as he went for the three points, which meant minimal ice time for Brown and fellow debutant Logan Neilson.

It briefly backfired when Ukraine then went ahead thanks to Denys Boradai’s low shot from the right-circle with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Although Ben Lake’s effort shortly after was waived off after he was adjudged to have kicked the puck over the line, it wasn’t long before GB were level, O’Connor’s throw on net from the left-wing diverted over the line.

GB are in action again on Monday when they take on hosts Romania (5.30pm) when Liam Kirk is expected to come into the line-up fresh from having won the DEL play-offs with Eisbaren Berlin.

The two sides have met 22 times in history with GB winning 17, Romania four and one tie.

The most recent World Championship encounter came at the 2023 Division 1A tournament in Nottingham as Perlini, Kirk, Jonathan Phillips, Johnny Curran, Sam Ruopp, Evan Mosey and Waller all scored in a 7-0 victory.

DAY ONE RESULTS: Great Britain 4 Ukraine 3 (SO); Italy 4 Japan 1, Romania 1 Poland 4.