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Brave GB go down in Kazakhstan victory

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It took until 54.42 for Kazakhstan to take the lead against Team GB, a team ranked 11 places below them in World Standings, up until then the British had stood firm led by goalie Stephen Murphy. The result sees Kazakhstan take Silver Medal with Britain finishing in 4th place in the group.

GB weathered the storm in the first period as Kazakhstan came out of the blocks hard, with GB taking early penalties as Kazakhstan pushed forward Stephen Murphy saw plenty of the puck. Edinburgh Capitals defenseman Kyle Horne received a nasty elbow from Kazakhstan forward Starchenko in the 4th minute, the powerplay time gave GB a period of time to settle down and take some control themselves. And the influential Greg Chambers did great work behind the net before laying on an inch perfect pass for David Clarke to jam home to give the British a surprise 1-0 lead.

Kazakhstan threw everything at GB and with their speed telling, the British took three more minor penalties in the first period, with the penalty kill units led by Matthew Myers and Jonathan Phillips working overtime to ensure that they protected the goal advantage. Pressure eventually told when in the 13th minute as Murphy deflected a shot into the path of Spiridonov who at the second attempt fired over a sprawling Murphy.

GB Coach Paul Thompson called for GB to be tighter in the second period and play a more defensive game, this they did as they suffocated much of the Kazakhstan offence whilst creating two good scoring chances of their own falling to Leigh Jamieson and Greg Owen. After a scoreless middle period it was all to play for in the final 20 minutes with the team winning that period collecting a silver medal at the Championship.

The British youngsters out battled Kazakhstan for great periods of the third session with excellent chances falling to the line of Greg Owen, Jonathan Phillips and Greg Chambers. Owen in fact hit the post when he beat Kazakhstan defenseman Fadeyev to a rebounded shot from Phillips.

With overtime starting to look likely and GB closer to pulling off an amazing result, Kazakhstan came hard throwing everything at the British with Murphy making one outstanding save after another. With just over five minutes remaining Yessirkenov threw a wrist shot at Murphy's net only for it to be deflected off the pads of forward Spiridonov for the game winning goal. Kazakhstan then broke British hearts when Vyatkin deflected a shot past Murphy 32 seconds later to rap up the victory.

Murphy turned away an incredible 45 shots against the talented Kazakhstan team to earn him self the Man of the Match award.