ESTONIA 1 GREAT BRITAIN 7
Great Britain’s Men’s head coach Pete Russell was delighted with his team’s performance as they crushed Estonia 7-1 to set up a winner takes all clash with Hungary for a spot in the next qualifying round for the Winter Olympics.
Following on from Thursday’s 4-3 win over Romania, GB got the job done in convincing fashion against the Estonians as they look to take a step nearer to Beijing in 2022.
And Russell is gearing up for another big day in his tenure as the national coach as they prepare for the Hungarians.
“I thought the last two periods were really good,” he said. “I wasn’t really happy with the last 10 minutes of the first, but we were very strong in the end.
“It was a packed crowd tonight and a great atmosphere. We had amazing support from our fans.
“We are looking forward to Hungary tomorrow. It will be a different type of game and we must rest now ahead of a massive day.”
Robert Farmer picked up his 50th cap in what turned out to be a good day all round, but it didn’t all go GB’s way at the start, as both teams played out a goalless first period.
GB thrashed Estonia 7-1 to set up a winner takes all clash with Hungary (PHOTO: Dean Woolley)
The goals started to fly in the second as Brett Perlini tipped in Davey Phillips’ shot three minutes into the second followed by Ollie Betteridge’s fantastic one-timer from just inside the blueline made it 2-0 for his first international goal.
Scott Conway, in his second game, scored through the five-hole before Perlini grabbed his second with a one-timer from the top of the circle on the powerplay.
Estonia had their moment to enjoy when Aleksei Sibirtsev got them on the board late on the middle session.
Ben Lake added GB’s fifth on the powerplay with Jonathan Phillips sweeping the puck into the net from the left circle with 11 minutes to go.
A perfect Luke Ferrara pass found Conway who jumped into the play to fire in his second with five to go to complete a good night’s work for GB.
Earlier in the day, Hungary needed overtime to see off Romania, in a 3-2 win to give them two points, which sees them a point behind GB in the standings after the second round of games.
GB take on Hungary at 6pm at the Motorpoint Arena on Sunday, with the winners taking the next step in qualifying in August.
