Hand names 22 man squad for World Championships

Great Britain’s Head Coach Tony Hand has named his 22 man squad for the World Championships in Hungary later this month; showing minor changes to the roster that made the trip to the pre-olympic qualifers in February. A strong 41 man squad was announced just over a week ago, with notable inclusions from English Premier League (EPL) teams; two of which have made the final cut.

Four changes have been made to the team that was originally selected for the final Olympic qualifers in Latvia in February. Steve Lee, who was replaced by Jonathan Weaver for Latvia due to injury, has been included from the start. Fellow defender, Luke Boothroyd, has also been included fresh from his play-off winning services for the Manchester Phoenix. Forwards Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils) and Aaron Nell, of the EPL Swindon Wildcats, have also made the cut in the 22 man squad.

Luke Boothroyd has been included in the team to fly to Hungary. Photo by David Steadman

Unfortunately Ben O’Connor has been denied release from his KHL club to attend the tournament; whilst Rod Sarich, Mark Garside and Jason Hewitt will also miss out.

GB have began their training camp this week, following the EIHL and EPL play-off finals weekend, before heading out to Hungary on Friday.

They will face the hosts in the first match of the Division One – Group A tournament. The teams play a single round-robin series. Each teams plays each opponent once and the winner of the event will be promoted to the Top Division. The last-ranked team will be relegated to Division I Group B.

Coach Hand said: “All games are tough at this level and they will be five difficult games for us throughout the tournament.

“We are taking a strong team away with us, even though we have key guys out. I would love the team to come away with a medal.
“We are looking forward to the three-day camp now and get ourselves prepared for an important week.”

Netminders

Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays)

Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)

Defencemen

Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers)

Dave Phillips (Belfast Giants)

Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils)

Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers)

Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers)

Luke Boothroyd (Manchester Phoenix)

Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)

Forwards

David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers)

Robert Dowd (Troja-Ljungby)

Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan)

Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils)

Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils)

Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)

Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers)

Greg Owen (Basingstoke Bison)

Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants)

Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats)

Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)

Colin Shields (Belfast Giants)

 

The schedule of the games are as follows;

14th April@19:30 – Hungary v GB

15th April @16:00 – GB v Kazakhstan

17th April @16:00 – GB v Italy

19th April @16:00 – GB v Japan

20th April @12:30 – GB v South Korea

GB Preliminary Squad announced for Hungary challenge

Preliminary squad named ahead of Hungary World Championships. (photo by Diane Davey)

Great Britain Head Coach Tony Hand has named his 41 man preliminary squad ahead of the Division 1A World Championships in Budapest next month.

GB will be aiming for a promotion to the World’s top flight division as they take on hosts Hungary; as well as Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan and South Korea in the championship between 14 April and 20 April.

Hand will select a final 22 man roster before departure for the tournament next month following the conclusion of both the EIHL and EPL Play-off final weekends.

The GB rosters, even the preliminary named squads, have been dominated by Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) representatives. However in recent times English Premier League (EPL) players have been included for selection. This could have something to do with Hand being the Manchester Phoenix player/coach; and being in a better position to analyse opposing players and assess their qualities for the GB team.

There is a notable exclusion to the initial selection of Sheffield Steelers’ defenceman Rob Sarich, the only dual-national player in Riga, Latvia earlier this year. As such there are no dual-national players included in the preliminary squad for Hungary. Sheffield and Belfast are the most represented teams from the EIHL with 6 players each, whilst the recently EIHL Champions Nottingham have 5 players present. Basingstoke Bison are the most represented team from the EPL with 3 players.

Coach Hand said: “There are a lot of new faces in this preliminary squad and it obviously gives me plenty of options. This is reward for the guys who have had a great season with their clubs.

“We have terrific talent in the UK, not just in the Elite League but in the EPL as well, and that shows in the strength of the squad. The final 22 will be a tough call, but I am lucky to be in this position with great talent at my disposal.”

The Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament held in Latvia in February showed that the GB team has made progress, however it also showed that the team has a number of weaknesses which will need to be addressed for Hungary. Despite having faced four of the teams in the past year or so, with Italy the only team GB hasn’t faced recently, the tournament will present new challenges for Hand and his men.

Although we cannot predict what will happen between now and April 14, with a number of games left to play in both the EIHL and EPL, injuries or other circumstances could see a very different and fresh squad fly out to Europe.

Although promotion to the top flight division is up for grabs for the winners, realistically GB will be competing for 3rd, 4th or 5th positions and therefore it would be an ideal opportunity to take some of the youth that is starting to develop, with a mixture of experienced players, and see how the team gets on. Success at international level for GB is a marathon and not a sprint, therefore if we miss out on the chance for promotion this time around; it is not to be seen as a setback but rather foundation building for the future years to come.

Schedule of Games:

14/04/13 – Hungary v GB (19:30)

15/04/13 – Kazakhstan v GB (16:00)

17/04/13 – Italy v GB (16:00)

19/04/13 – Japan v GB (16:00)

20/04/13 – GB v South Korea (12:30)

 

GB PRELIMINARY SQUAD

Netminders

 Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays)

Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)

Geoff Woolhouse (Sheffield Steelers)

Stevie Lyle (Basingstoke Bison)

 

Defenceman 

Luke Boothroyd (Manchester Phoenix)

Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers)

Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)

Adam Carr (MK Lightning)

Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils)

Kevin Phillips (Braehead Clan)

James Griffin (Coventry Blaze)

Stevie Lee (Nottingham Panthers)

Ben Morgan (Sheffield Steeldogs)

David Phillips (Belfast Giants)

Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils)

Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers)

 

Forwards 

Greg Wood (Sheffield Steeldogs)

Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)

Joe Greener (Basingstoke Bison)

Ben Campbell (Guilford Flames)

Matthew Towe (Belfast Giants)

Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers)

Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats)

Ben O’Connor (Arlan Kokshetau)

Greg Owen (Basingstoke Bison)

Colin Shields (Belfast Giants)

David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers)

Leigh Jamieson (MK Lightning)

Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)

Russ Cowley (Coventry Blaze)

Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils)

Matthew Davies (Hull Stingrays)

Robert Dowd (Troja-Ljungby)

Tom Duggan (Manchester Phoenix)

Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan)

Mark Garside (Belfast Giants)

Matthew Haywood (Braehead Clan)

Jason Hewitt (Sheffield Steelers)

Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants)

Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers)

Shaun Thompson (Bracknell Bees)

GB ontop in Japan

It is now some 12 days since Team GB returned from Japan having secured their place in the final qualification round for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Coach Tony Hand named his 22 man squad in October which featured just one English Premier League (EPL) player in the form of GB legend David Longstaff. However Hand was forced to make two late changes as Rob Sarich and David Clarke were forced to withdraw through injury. Their replacements were Stevie Lee from Nottingham and Leigh Jamieson of the Milton Keynes Lightning; who would feature as the team’s second EPL entrant.

The 22 man squad that headed to Japan were;

Netminders 

Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays)

Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)

Defence

Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers)

Ben O’Connor (Arlan Kokshetau)

Dave Phillips (Belfast Giants)

Mark Richardson (Arlan Kokshetau)

Stevie Lee (Nottingham Panthers)

Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers)

Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)

Forwards

Robert Dowd (Troja-Ljungby)

Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan)

Mark Garside (Belfast Giants)

Jason Hewitt (Sheffield Steelers)

Leigh Jamieson (Milton Keynes Lightning)

Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils)

Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)

David Longstaff (Guildford Flames)

Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers)

Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants)

Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers)

Colin Shields (Sheffield Steelers)

Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)

The Olympic pre-qualification games for Group J (GB, Japan, Romania and South Korea) were held in Nikkō, Tochigi – Japan. Great Britain, ranked 21st had the option to host the Group J contest, however passed the rights to the next highest-ranked team which was Japan.

Great Britain were first up on Friday 9th November as they faced South Korea in the opening game of the weekend. GB made a great start to the game and were 2-0 up within the opening 5 minutes as Craig Peacock and David Longstaff scored.

Won Jung Kim pulled a goal back for S.Korea within 57 seconds. However a goal by Ben O’Connor’s in the 17th minute ensured GB led 3-1 at the first interval.

Won Jung Kim netted his second at 22:27 to pull S.Korea back to a one goal deficit. But Colin Shields scored at the half-way mark of the game to restore GB’s two goal advantage. Won Jung Kim completed his hat-trick at 38:45 and Geunho Kim then leveled the game shortly after the second interval in the 46th minute of play.

Both teams held on for the remainder of the game and no further scoring was seen; sending the game into overtime. With the overtime period still unable to declare a winner the opening game of the tournament went to penalty shots. Shields and Longstaff missed for Great Britain, with Sang Wook Kim and Min Ho Cho successful for S.Korea; who took the victory 5-4. However GB earned a very valuable point from the game.

On Saturday 10th November Great Britain were once again in action in the opening game of the Day as they faced Romania. The game saw David Longstaff reach the milestone 100 caps for Great Britain which was suitably celebrated with a 3-0 victory. In addition to Longstaff; Matthew Myers and Jonathan Phillips and netminder Stephen Murphy, all reached the 50 game milestone for what turned out to be a memorable day in Japan.

With Japan beating South Korea 3-2 in overtime, a dramatic end to the weekend was set, with the winner of the Great Britain v Japan match on Sunday likely to win the group and earn their place in the final qualification round.

With a late face off time on Sunday 11th November; Great Britain were able to rest up as they prepared to face Japan. Two goals in 30 seconds in the opening period saw GB take a 2-0 lead.

Craig Peacock netted on the powerplay at 9:59 and Ben O’Connor scored his third goal of the tournament at 10:29 two give GB the required lead in the game. A scoreless second period set up a thrilling final 20 minutes which saw Japan pull a goal back through Shuhei Kuji just 4 minutes into the period; but GB held on to take the victory and to earn their place in the final qualification rounds.

Head coach, Tony Hand, said: “This is a huge moment in the history of British ice hockey. I am so, so, proud of every one of these guys and so should everyone back home. We have proved we can compete at this level and now we want to prove we can compete at a higher level.

“Every single guy played their heart out and we did this with talent and determination.No-one should under-estimate how much this means to British ice hockey. It is massive.We are one step away from Sochi 2014 and now get to test ourselves against some of the world’s best hockey nations.”

Following the contest it was confirmed that Team GB would be traveling to Latvia for the final Olympic qualification round. GB have been placed in Group E and will play Latvia, France and Kazakhstan between 7th and 10th of February 2013.

GB are ranked 21st in the world and will be the lowest seed in their group with Latvia ranked 11th in the world, France 14th and Kazakhstan 17th.

Coach Hand and Team GB are now within touching distance of the Winter Olympics due to be held in Sochi, Russia in 2014.