The GB Sledge Hockey team took to the ice against Germany in a pivotal game which decided who would play for the gold medal and who would play for the silver medal. In a tight game it was eventually Germany who emerged victorious, winning by a 4 goal margin. Last time the two sides met at the 2011 European championships GB were on the end of a 20-0 beating by Germany.
As well as deciding which colour medal each team would be playing for in the next game today’s result also meant that the winner secured promotion to Pool A for the 2015 World Championships and guaranteed themselves a place in the final qualification tournament later this year.
GB Sledge entered the game knowing that today would see a hard, competitive game with both teams fighting for place in the gold medal final and to ensure their Sochi dreams remained alive. The first period saw both teams fighting to take control of the game with neither team conceding a goal.
Period two saw GB take two simultaneous penalties early on giving Germany the opportunity to open the scoring and then taking the momentum to score an additional two goals. The third period saw GB back in the game and they held the period apart from a controversial goal that appeared to be scored though a hand pass.
Red Geddes, GB Team Manager, said:
“I have seen the GB Squad develop over the last few years and they have gone from a group of individual players to a well organised team unit. I view them as my family I am immensely proud of what they have achieved and what they have the potential to become. The game today showed how far GB has progressed with a hard, fair game played with real passion.”
GB forward Tyler Christopher said:
“We have been asked a lot as a team in time and commitment. We have delivered and then some. Today’s game was always going to be a hard one but we played with passion and we could not have done more. I look forward to tomorrow’s game where we will come back even stronger against Estonia and fight for Bronze medal position”.
GB will now play Estonia at 1:35am Saturday morning. The winner will collect the bronze medal but more importantly will secure entry to the qualification tournament for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympic games.
