The task for Great Britain to stave off relegation from the 2019 IIHF World Championships was simple in it‘s requirement.

Find a way to defeat France in any manner and a second crack at the top tier of World Championship hockey in Switzerland next year would be the reward.

Coming off two successive promotions and ranked 22nd in the world, it was not going to be an easy assignment to take down the 13th seeds who were enjoying their twelfth campaign at this level.

All appeared to be going to the expected script in the second period.
France swiftly earned themselves a 3-0 lead and GB appeared dead and buried.
The prospect of mounting a comeback looked unlikely having previously only scored five times in the entire tournament through six games, and hopes of avoiding the inevitable return to Division 1A were seemingly extinguished.

First Period:

The collapse in the middle frame was in contrast to a first period showing that gave GB fans much to be enthused about.

During an all action beginning to the game, Ben Davies found himself on a breakaway but inexplicably chose a drop pass instead of shooting but none of his team-mates were in the vicinity.
Ben Bowns then proceeded to make his first fantastic save of the game – a pad stop to turn aside Alexandre Texier.

Tim Billingsley produced a sliding block at the four minute mark to deny Damien Fleury what appeared to be a sure goal and from that moment on it was GB who took control of the opening frame.

Jonathan Phillips and Colin Shields were both denied and Mike Hammond had an easy rebound opportunity he was just unable to corral.

Young Liam Kirk then created his own breakaway with eight minutes remaining after a fine play at his own blue line. However he was hooked at the crucial moment and his weak shot hit the post and bounced away from danger.

A power play for Great Britain failed to materialise into a goal and their best chance to take a lead into the intermission was through Robert Dowd. A fine individual effort resulted in a backhand effort that brought a smart stop from Florian Hardy.

Second Period:

The opening 7:37 of the middle frame proved frantic and featured a host of errors.
Following a sloppy opening minute of the period, GB almost recovered to strike first but Kirk was denied twice, as was Davies on the resulting rebound.

Anthony Rech finished from the left circle with a fine shot from the left circle to make it 1-0 after GB had failed to pick him up as the trailer on a nice French move.

Ben Lake almost responded with consecutive attempts but France would double their lead on a power play.
Sacha Treille with the deflection in front of the screened Bowns who had little chance to make the save required.

It was 3-0 immediately as Rech went straight down the ice from the face-off and slotted past Bowns.
Three goals in 4:01 and British hearts were surely broken by the sudden turn of events.

GB Head Coach Pete Russell called a timeout which proved pivotal and had the desired effect for his team.

Ben O’Connor picked off an attempted outlet pass inside the French zone, dished the puck to Dowd who showed remarkable composure to finish on his backhand to put GB on the board.

It was now game on and another goal before the end of the second period would surely be huge.
Step forward Mike Hammond with under two minutes remaining.

GB’s leading goal scorer at the tournament tapped home a rebound after a redirected point shot had caused consternation in the French crease.

Third Period:

Now trailing 3-2, could Great Britain do the unthinkable and complete a comeback from down three goals?

Robert Farmer almost tied the game just a minute in but fired over the bar from in tight.
However he made no mistake with 5:16 on the clock by scoring a goal of his own creation.
Driving to the net from below the goal line, Farmer was gifted a little too much space and roofed his shot short-side past Hardy to send the GB fans into pandemonium.

In fact it wasn’t just the GB fans almost lifting the roof off the building. Thanks to building goodwill through passionate performances and the behaviour of their fans, every neutral inside the arena were cheering for Great Britain and it made for an exhilarating final frame of regulation with each play now heightened in intensity as it could lead to the vital go-ahead goal.

The teams shared twenty shots but it was France who undoubtedly had the best chances late on with a power play inside the final five minutes.
The struggling GB penalty kill for once stood firm and Bowns made another pair of top draw saves to send the game into the almost inevitable overtime.

Overtime:

Ben Bowns has faced the most rubber of any goaltender at the World Championships and the five saves he made in overtime were the biggest of his career to date.

France threw the proverbial kitchen sink at GB but Bowns would simply not be beaten.
The Cardiff Devils netminder pulled off three consecutive incredible saves to deny the 13th seeds and eventually held on the puck to settle down his team.

Against all the odds it was a set-play from a defensive zone face-off that would lead to a piece of British hockey history.

Davies won the face-off but instead of deflecting the puck backwards, he sent a forward pass for Jonathan Phillips to chase down with Florian Chakiachvili in pursuit. The French defenseman attempted to knock Phillips out of the way with a booming hit but it failed to have the desired effect.

GB’s captain somehow kept his balance and control of the puck, showing poise and composure to get his head up and find Davies screaming toward goal.

The Guildford forward received the pass and now just had Hardy to beat.

In his own words, it was pure instinct and had no idea why he went on his backhand, but the Welsh native roofed his shot past Hardy to complete the most remarkable of comebacks in British hockey history and secure top tier World Championship hockey for 2020.

Two successive promotions and staving off relegation is a feat not to be trivialised in any shape or form and these group of players and all the staff deserve the greatest credit for continuing to confound their doubters.

Great Britain has endeared themselves to the hockey world during this tournament and have now earned the chance to build something special moving forward and use this as a springboard.