Great moments are born from great opportunity.

That line spoken by Coach Herb Brooks to his 1980 US Olympic team certainly rang true for Team GB heading into the final game of their 2018 IIHF World Championship campaign.

Just a year ago, Head Coach Pete Russell masterminded GB’s promotion from Division 1, Group B after two previous heartbreaking campaigns in which they finished second when looking nailed on for the gold medal.

Back in Division 1, Group A for the first time since 2013, bottom ranked Great Britain had engineered themselves a chance of promotion after a staggering series of results which began with causing a huge upset in game one.

A 3-1 victory against top seeds Slovenia, who recently competed at the Winter Olympics, turned this group on it’s head.
Led by goaltender Ben Bowns posting 34 saves, GB made the perfect start through Brett Perlini scoring the opening goal less than seven minutes in but were pegged back through the opening period.
An even strength marker from Robert Dowd in the second period and a second power play strike from Perlini secured an outstanding victory.

Despite opening the scoring against Kazakhstan in game two, GB were well and truly thumped 6-1 by a very talented team but Pete Russell’s charges would not allow this defeat to define them.

What followed was a performance full of courage after twice leading against Poland through Perlini and Colin Shields, GB found themselves trailing 2-3 through forty minutes.
A penalty shot save late in the second period from Bowns ensured the deficit was just a single goal and GB roared back in the third period, netting twice in two minutes through Brendan Brooks and Ben O’Connor. Jonathan Phillips then secured a 5-3 win inside the final sixty seconds and now promotion seemed like a distinct possibility.

Italy proved a persistent foe during an incident packed game four, which was not especially high in quality.
Average goaltending on both sides led to five goals in twenty-two minutes and a 3-3 score line with 15 minutes remaining.
After being pegged back three times by Italy, GB’s fourth goal would prove the backbreaker and it was a memorable piece of play from Perlini who scored unassisted to claim a third regulation win for his nation.

Heading into the last day of competition the table looked like this:

Saturday’s results left GB requiring a point in the last game of the tournament against hosts Hungary to ensure promotion and the gold medal.
Regulation defeat would see a highly motivated Hungary promoted and leave GB heartbroken in third place.

First Period:

Almost inevitably there would be some adversity as GB fell behind to an early power play strike from Christopher Bodo just three and a half minutes in.

A man advantage would follow for Great Britain but despite some good looks were unable to pay Hungary back in kind.

Brett Perlini and Colin Shields had the best opportunities to level the score line at even strength but GB certainly caught a break as Ben Bowns made a tremendous right pad save to deny Balazs Sebok and ensure it was only a one-goal game through twenty minutes.

Second Period:

The middle frame produced 24 shots in total but no scoring.
Brendan Brooks and Robert Dowd almost struck five minutes into the second period but GB then took consecutive penalties to put themselves on the back foot.
On the second of those they almost tied up proceedings through Mark Richardson who was only denied a short-handed tally by a terrific save from Adam Vay.

GB earned themselves a lone power play but lacked genuine composure when it truly mattered and entered the final twenty minutes of regulation requiring one goal to make history.

Third Period:

Great Britain’s task became even more difficult less than two minutes into the final frame.

Bowns denied Csanad Erdely once but the Hungarian forward then had an intended pass hit him up high following a deflection and the puck fortuitously flew into the net. It stayed a good goal despite video review and that ‘lucky’ goal now left GB with a mountain to climb.

It would have been an impossible journey had Bowns not kept his team in the game with yet another fantastic save at the six minute mark as he turned aside Erdely on a breakaway.

Then it happened.
It wasn’t pretty but after some concerted pressure inside the Hungarian zone and sticks flailing everywhere, Dowd spun and shot on goal from the right face-off dot and the puck found it’s way past Vay and hit the twine.

It was very much game on with nine minutes to play but the drama was only truly just beginning.
GB were almost immediately on a power play but Hungary held firm.

Then another power play with 3:22 remaining would see Hungary orchestrate a breakaway and though they wouldn’t score on that opportunity, the officials awarded a penalty shot.

Surely Bowns couldn’t stop a third penalty shot in this competition, could he?
Janos Hari stepped up for the host nation but he was obviously not aware of the Welsh superpowers possessed by Bowns, who looked beaten but flung himself to his right to make a pad save and in doing so kept the dream alive.

Great Britain’s power play was unable to deliver and now with a little over a minute remaining they had to dig deep and find something………anything.

With 25 seconds on the clock and Bowns sitting on the bench, Ben Davies won a crucial face-off in the left dot but Hungary looked to have stolen possession back before a telling interception by the veteran Brooks.
He dished the puck off to his left to Robert Farmer who looked as if he was going to deliver a cross ice feed.
However the Nottingham Panthers forward who scored just nine goal this past season decided to let fly on goal. It was far from the greatest shot you’ll ever see but the puck appeared to hit the inside of Vay’s left pad before sliding across the goal line and now it was a TIED GAME.

Cue pandemonium from the Great Britain bench and their fans but there were still 15 seconds left to play.  Hungary would go steaming forward in desperation from the face-off, forcing yet another save from Bowns and an offensive zone draw with two seconds remaining.

Pete Russell entrusted Brett Perlini with the job of winning the face-off and he tied it up just enough to wind that time down.
With a 2-2 tie in regulation Great Britain had earned promotion back to Pool A.
Back to facing USA, Canada, Russia, Sweden et al.

The world’s very best.

Remarkable.

There was still the matter of overtime to play of course and once more Bowns came up with some huge saves and followed that up with four further stops in the shootout to ensure Great Britain finished with a 3-2 victory.

There were some magnificent performances through the tournament but those that stood out were Brett Perlini with six points (4-2-6), Ben O’Connor who led all defensemen in scoring (4-2-6), Robert Dowd (1-3-4), Brendan Brooks (1-3-4) and Mark Richardson (0-3-3).

Young Liam Kirk also put in some fine performances in what was his first GB campaign at this level and did his hope’s of being drafted in the NHL no harm at all.

Then there is Ben Bowns.
I’ve run out of superlatives to describe his play but simply put he backstopped the lowest ranked team to a gold medal and promotion. Outstanding.
A 0.919 tournament save percentage and if you take away the Kazakhstan game (6-1 loss) he gave up a combined eight goals in the other four games – giving his nation a chance to win.

Those behind the bench are often overlooked when such historic moments occur but Head Coach Peter Russell and his Assistants Adam Keefe and Corey Neilson deserve huge plaudits for what they’ve helped GB to achieve.

For the first time since 1994, Great Britain will go up against the likes of Canada, Russia and the USA in Pool A of next year’s World Championship.

If you dare to dream you can achieve and Slovakia 2019 is the result of that.