Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Great Britain Back in IIHF's Top Flight Division

It's been 25 years since Great Britain has been playing at the top level of the IIHF hockey championships. While Team GB might not have a long history of hockey, they do hold one claim to fame that Russia, Sweden or anybody else can't.

If you do into a sports bar anywhere in the world, you might be able to win lots of money with one simple question. Who was the first country other than Canada to win Olympic Gold? The year was 1936 and Olympics were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Canada came into the tournament as overwhelming favorites as they had won Olympic Gold on the last three occasions. This tournament was different however, Great Britain was able to play good defensively as they outscored their opponents 19-4 in eight games.

The catch is, there were Canadians on that team because of Canada's forced participation WW I. This resulted in an increased interest in hockey that resulted in a 1936 Gold.

Since WW II there has been a steady decline in British hockey. A 4th place finish at the 1950 World Championship is the last significant result. The last time they were playing in the top tier was 1994 when they finished dead last which resulted in there relegation.

They were promoted last year when they won their group. This gave them promotion back to the top level where they will be playing the likes of Canada, USA and Finland. Getting out of the group stage would be a miracle but not getting relegated isn't impossible. Beating France might be their best chance.

Here is the schedule for Group A which is the easier of the two groups:


Finland
 
 Canada
United States  Slovakia
11 May 2019
Denmark  France
Germany  Great Britain
Slovakia  Finland
12 May 2019
United States  France
Denmark  Germany
Great Britain  Canada
13 May 2019
United States  Finland
Slovakia  Canada
14 May 2019
Great Britain  Denmark
Germany  France
15 May 2019
United States  Great Britain
Germany  Slovakia
16 May 2019
Canada  France
Finland  Denmark
17 May 2019
France  Slovakia
Finland  Great Britain
18 May 2019
Denmark  United States
Canada  Germany
Great Britain  Slovakia
19 May 2019
Germany  United States
France  Finland
20 May 2019
France  Great Britain
Canada  Denmark
21 May 2019
Finland  Germany
Slovakia  Denmark
Canada  United States

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