It’s no hyperbole to say that Ben Bowns was Great Britain’s star man on and off the ice through the 2019 IIHF World Championships.
His performances on the ice were outstanding and included some highlight-reel saves including this one to deny highly touted Jack Hughes.
In the same game.
Then in the last game of the tournament against France, Bowns produced a stellar showing, especially in overtime to allow Great Britain to mount a comeback and stave off relegation with an incredible OT victory.
Bowns opted to re-sign in Cardiff for the 2019-20 campaign much to the surprise of many fans and pundits after a fantastic showing at the Worlds.
The following summer with the pandemic having cut short the season and the prospect of hockey being played in the UK looking bleak, the Hull native took the gamble of signing in Austria with Graz 99ers.
It’s was a roller-coaster for the goaltender in Austria, one in which he took his wife and dog along for the ride, which turned out to be a blessing.
Just three games into his first season abroad, Bowns sustained a horrific knee injury which would keep him out for 29 games.
In his absence, Graz faltered but upon his return the Austrian club turned the tide and started to pick up results, finishing the regular season with much better results.
Sadly things didn’t end well as Bowns was benched at the end of the campaign for reasons that haven’t come to light publicly, but there is a story to that situation that might well come out someday.
The former Cardiff Devils netminder headed back to the UK to play in the Elite League streaming series as preparation for the 2021 IIHF World Championships.
Heading into Latvia and the bubble, expectations for Bowns, at least from the outside, were far lower than for the netminder who left Slovakia as a much-vaunted and sought-after commodity.
Liam Kirk had a point to prove at these World Championships and so did Ben Bowns, whose stock had depreciated slightly.
With Jackson Whistle having been given the first game of the tournament against Russia, there were murmurings that the starts would be split and Bowns would have to settle for less ice-time.
That turned out not to be the case and rightly so as Bowns showed he’s still an excellent goaltender when donning a GB jersey.
A 41 save performance against Slovakia almost earned Great Britain a point in a narrow 2-1 loss.
Turning side 29 shots from Denmark in game three would give GB their first point of the tournament in a 3-2 overtime loss.
In the historic 4-3 regulation victory against Belarus that followed, Bowns’ performance went a little under the radar. The goaltender made 33 stops in total but importantly twenty of those were in the third period when Belarus laid siege to the GB net.
Image courtesy of Dean Woolley
A 52 save performance versus Sweden wasn’t enough to earn GB a point but Bowns was clearly back to his very best by this stage of the tournament and playing in a fashion that could only remind you of performances in 2019.
His statistics would take a battering in the final two games, albeit not of his doing.
He came in relief of Whistle against the Czech Republic, allowing two goals on thirteen shots in the third period.
Great Britain was gassed by the time they faced Switzerland.
Image courtesy of Dean Woolley
Although they went toe-to-toe with the more talented nation for half an hour, they capitulated late in the middle frame and in doing so destroyed Bowns’ hugely impressive save percentage.
Ben Bowns ended the tournament with a .910 save percentage and is likely to finish with the most saves having stopped 201 shots and facing the most rubber of any goaltender.
With the tournament played in a bubble, there wasn’t the adulation from fans or media outlets from two years previous.
Also, Liam Kirk’s exceptional performances took the spotlight off Bowns but make no mistake, the goaltender was back to his very best after a season in which not much went right for him.
So what next?
The World Championships were extremely well scouted and Bowns did have some other options before signing with Graz last year.
Whether those other teams would reignite interest in signing the Great Britain netminder is complete conjecture.
That being said, with Bowns now having shown an interest in playing overseas I would not be surprised to see him play outside the UK for a second successive season.
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