Robert Dowd scored a second-period hat-trick as Great Britain beat Hungary 7-4 at Planet Ice Milton Keynes on Tuesday night.
Liam Kirk scored twice, including an empty-netter, while Mike Hammond contributed five assists.
Jackson Whistle started between the pipes with Ben Bowns as back-up, while Kieran Brown missed out because of injury.
GB lost Brandon Whistle during the second period and his injury is being assessed by the medical staff.
Hungary lead after first period
GB had the game’s first clear-cut chance as Hammond skated down the ring-wing and set-up Kirk, but his shot was saved by Rajna Miklos.
The visitors went ahead when Istvan Bartalis fed defenceman Bence Szab who jumped into the play and fired short-side past Whistle (7:29).
Dowd scores second-period hat-trick but Hungary stay ahead
GB closed the gap early in the second session as David Clements saw his shot saved after being fed by Hammond from behind the net, but Dowd popped in the rebound (20:20).
Hammond won the face-off to create GB’s second and Nathanael Halbert set-up Dowd to fire in his second of the night with a one-timer from the left-circle on the powerplay (23:19),
Photo credit: Tony Sargent
But Hungary hit back to take a 4-2 lead as Vilmos Gallo’s blast from the blueline took a deflection past Whistle (24:49), Natan Vertes finished neatly on the breakaway (29:16) and Milan Horvath fired through traffic (35:00).
Dowd completed his hat-trick only 16 seconds later, latching onto Hammond’s feed from the corner (35:16) to close the gap to one.
GB score three quick goals in third period
Britain scored three goals in just over three minutes to turn the game on its head again as Josh Batch sent Ben Davies clear to equalise (42:53).
Kirk’s one-timer from the right-circle on a five-on-three powerplay put GB ahead (45:11), while Robert Lachowicz’s rebound with the man advantage stretched the lead to two (46:05).
Hungary lifted Miklos for the extra skater and Hammond set-up Kirk to score into an empty net for his second of the night.
The two sides meet again tomorrow night at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham (7:30pm face-off).
Visit www.icehockeyuk.co.uk to buy tickets.
Photo credit: Tony Sargent.
