The results on day four ensured that Korea, Great Britain and Lithuania will be fighting it out for the medals on Sunday.

All three nations secured relatively comfortable victories, though Korea was pushed a little harder than the shot clock and final scoreline would suggest.

Great Britain 6-1 Spain


FIRST PERIOD

The hosts hoisted them into a healthy advantage through twenty minutes but it was far from a stellar first-period showing.

Spain showed their deficiencies inside the opening minute, gifting GB a dream start.
Mack Stweart seized on a turnover behind the net and sent the puck immediately out front.
Jack Hopkins was denied, as was Stewart, who drove into the slot but Carter Hamill was on hand to roof a backhand shot past Roberto Mampel.

Great Britain should have doubled their lead a minute later. Oliver Endicott failed to bury a shot by the Spanish netminder following an excellent fee by Finley Bradon.

There was further drama shortly afterwards with Ben Norton leaving the ice with an equipment issue. Alex Oldale replaced him between the pipes, playing his first competitive minutes for Great Britain.

Oldale was solid and didn’t show any nerves that might have been there for the Manchester Storm youngster.
He turned aside five shots in a little over three minutes, including facing a Spanish power play before Norton was installed back in the net.

On Spain’s next power play, GB struck their first short-handed tally of the tournament.
Stewart chased down his own dump-in, winning a battle for possession he had no right to.
He duly sent the puck out to the slot where Hopkins showed his usual ice-cold composure to outwait the goaltender and slide the puck by his pads.

The hosts earned just a single power play in the first period and almost conceded a short-hand goal themselves.
An error by Archie Hazeldine was seized upon by Pablo Mata but Norton came up with a key save to keep the two-goal lead intact.

SECOND PERIOD

The middle frame turned into a special team battle as the game became testy and not helped by some nefarious officiating.

Spain’s second power play of the game resulted in themselves getting on the board, halving the deficit. Milique Martelly was called for interference despite delivering an exquisite hip-check to the Spanish puck carrier in the neutral zone.
Jose Blanco applied the merest redirect to Bosco Collado’s point shot to find the roof of Norton’s net.

There was no panic from the hosts who delivered a pair of their own power plays tallies.
The first was all about Archie Hazeldine who faked a point shot before sending a pinpoint pass down low to Kell Beattie in the left circle to score with a skimming one-time shot.

Youngster Connor Lee drew the penalty and must have been delighted to see GB score on the power play he earned. Ben Brown scored with a floated shot as Lucas Price provided an excellent screen in front.

GB almost built on their commanding 4-1 lead late in the frame through Hopkins but his rasping drive hit the inside of the post and bounced away from danger.

THIRD PERIOD

Great Britain rarely looked in danger in the third period but Norton was called upon to make a couple of quality saves.
The first of which denied Ivan Garkusha on a penalty shot after Beattie had hauled back the Spanish forward on a short-handed breakaway.

The second stop was another incredible diving save to deny Hugo Perez, which showcased his athletic ability.

The home fans were delighted to see GB pad their lead further with two late goals from Carter Hamill and Hopkings, ensuring a final-day showdown with Korea to decide the fate of the gold medal and promotion.

Post Game Notes

Alex Oldale on getting a chance to play briefly in relief.

“It came as a bit of a shock. The referee looked at me and told me I was up!”
“I think I did well for the minutes I played. I enjoyed myself. It was good to get out there.”

“I think I was more zoned out [than zoned in], to be honest. You just have to forget about everything and take each shot and each minute as it comes, whether you’re on the penalty kill or any situation.”

“It was special to make my debut on home ice, and it’s also my birthday, which makes it even better.”

It felt good [when back on the bench] and the boys were happy I got out there and made some saves.
On the week with Great Britain: “It’s been brilliant. The atmosphere and being in and around the boys, the coaches and the staff, everything about it has been great.”

“We kept to the task at hand and stayed focussed.” – Tom Watkins

“Connor [Lee] is a good kid. He’s really talented. He’s still very, very young and has never played any senior hockey or against men until September this year.
He’s patient, he’s coachable, and those are key factors. He knows his role, he’s a big part of the team and group and like you say, there are exciting times ahead for him.” – Tom Watkins

In the upcoming game against Korea.
“They have some tendencies and habits that work their way down from senior to junior level, and I’ve coached against them before with Pete Russell. We’ll speak to Pete to get some input as well as trawl through some video, which is what Dayle does so well.
It’s going to be a struggle and we know that we’ll have to compete hard. We have to take some pride in what we’ve achieved so far and look forward to it. Don’t be nervous about a big game, it’s why we play hockey.” – Tom Watkins

Lithuania 9-2 Netherlands

It took far longer for Lithuania to assert their dominance in this game given the nature of the two nations’ fortunes to this point in the tournament.

One of the Netherlands’ more impressive players, Jaidy Van Mourik gave his nation a shock 1-0 lead at the nine-minute mark.

The advantage lasted a little under three minutes as Lithuania responded with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the interval. Even strength strikes from Paulius Grybauskas and the towering Ilja Michalevic turned the game on its head.

To the surprise of everyone in attendance, the Netherlands tied the game at 2-2 through Danny Belkom just 47 seconds into the middle frame.
Was the upset on? Sadly not, as Lithuania continued to dominate possession, O-zone time and the shot clock before finally overpowering their opponent. Grybauskas picked up a second goal and Vitalij Fediukin found the net as Lithuania scored twice in five minutes to take a commanding lead.
Lithuania promptly scored a fifth late in the period through Milan Levcenko to take a 5-2 advantage and a firm grip on the game.

It was time for Lithuania to pad their stats in the final frame as they put another four past a tired and sorry-looking Netherlands team.
Fediukin scored a second, Sarunas Baltrunas netted twice and Kajus Zeynalov rounded off the scoring with Lithuania’s ninth goal, keeping them firmly in the medal hunt.

Korea 5-3 China

Korea kept their perfect record intact but it wasn’t all plain sailing despite the shot differential.

The only goal in the opening frame came on the power play at the seven-minute mark.
Siwhan Kim found the twine to break the deadlock and ensure the top seeds a 1-0 lead through twenty minutes.

Korea doubled their lead two minutes into the middle frame and you might have been forgiven for thinking the game would be one-way traffic.

China allayed those fears by responding 69 seconds later.
Bocheng Wen got the lowest seeds on the board much to their delight.

Even when Korea struck twice at the midway mark with goals 88 seconds apart, China was not dismayed and kept plugging away.

Kailin Chen struck with an individual tally in response to markers from Minjoon Huh and Sihwan Kim.

Trailing 4-2 with twenty minutes remaining, China stuck manfully to the task at hand but never looked likely to breach the two-goal gap.

Beomseok Kim struck Korea’s fifth goal of the game to ensure the regulation win but that would not be the end of the scoring.
Rong Luan brought China within two goals again with a little under eight minutes remaining but another goal to make it interesting would not arrive.

It was a clinical performance by Korea and a fourth consecutive regulation win. It wasn’t without fault however and there were chinks of light that might be exposed in their final game of the tournament.