Sheffield Steelers' trio into GB Olympic squad

Ben O'Connor, in action for Great Britain against South Korea last year.

Picture kindly supplied by Colin Lawson
. — Ben O'Connor, in action for Great Britain against South Korea last year. Picture kindly supplied by Colin Lawson .

Forwards Jonathan Phillips and Robert Dowd and defenceman Ben O’Connor have been chosen by head coach Pete Russell to help take on hosts Italy, as well as Netherlands and Serbia, in the four-team tournament from February 11-14.

The winners will go through to the final stage of qualifying ahead of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea in 2018.

Seventeen of the squad who won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championship (Division 1B) in Netherlands are named on the roster.

Stephen Murphy, Steve Lee, David Clarke and Hull-born Matty Davies – now at Manchester Storm – return after injury, while there’s a recall for Braehead Clan’s Ben Davies.

Hull-born defenceman David Phillips, also at Manchester Storm, is in the line-up, as is Rotherham-born goaltender Ben Bowns, now plying his trade with Cardiff Devils.

“The qualifiers are a very short format and we have no time to be experimenting at this stage,” said Russell.

“We have selected a large part of last year’s silver-medal team and rightly so, as they were brilliant on and off the ice.

“From this approach, we now already have a large core who know the philosophy and a large core who have shown such great togetherness and passion for our great country.

“We have now been very fortunate to be able to add Stephen Murphy, Stevie Lee, David Clarke, Ben Davies and Matty Davies into the group.

“All these guys will add to our depth of quality on the ice and also off it.”

Russell said it was going to be a tough group to get through, particularly against hosts Italy who are ranked six places above GB at 18th in the world rankings.

“It’s a very tough challenge that awaits us in Cortina,” added Russell.

“I guess it’s like a new season for GB and we must come together with the same mind set, work ethic, and fantastic team unity we showed in Netherlands last year.”

GB Squad: Netminders - Ben Bowns (Cardiff Devils), Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)

Defencemen: Josh Batch (Cardiff), Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers), Ben O’Connor (Sheffield Steelers), David Phillips (Manchester Storm), Mark Richardson (Cardiff), Paul Swindlehurst (Nottingham), Jonathan Weaver (Telford Tigers).

Forwards: Jonathan Boxill (Belfast), David Clarke (Nottingham), Ben Davies (Braehead), Matty Davies (Manchester Storm), Robert Dowd - Sheffield Steelers, Robert Farmer (Nottingham), Matt Haywood (Braehead), Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham), Matthew Myers (Nottingham), Craig Peacock (Belfast), Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield), Colin Shields (Belfast).