ICE HOCKEY: Four Belfast Giants help Team GB win Gold and promotion

Four members of the Stena Line Belfast Giants won gold as Team GB defeated Hungary to advance to the top level of international ice-hockey.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Apr 2018, 21:40 BST
Updated 29th Apr 2018, 22:51 BST
Colin Shields, Giants and GB all-time leading scorer, Jackson Whistle, Adam Keefe (Assistant Coach) and Jason Ellery (Equipment Manager) helped Team GB clinch back-to-back gold medals following 2017's triumph. Dean Woolley (Ice Hockey UK)Colin Shields, Giants and GB all-time leading scorer, Jackson Whistle, Adam Keefe (Assistant Coach) and Jason Ellery (Equipment Manager) helped Team GB clinch back-to-back gold medals following 2017's triumph. Dean Woolley (Ice Hockey UK)
Colin Shields, Giants and GB all-time leading scorer, Jackson Whistle, Adam Keefe (Assistant Coach) and Jason Ellery (Equipment Manager) helped Team GB clinch back-to-back gold medals following 2017's triumph. Dean Woolley (Ice Hockey UK)

Colin Shields, Giants and GB all-time leading scorer, Jackson Whistle, Adam Keefe (Assistant Coach) and Jason Ellery (Equipment Manager) helped Team GB clinch back-to-back gold medals following 2017’s triumph in Belfast (Division 1B) and again in Budapest 2018 (Division 1A).

Team GB will now play at the 2019 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia against the best hockey nations such as Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland etc.

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Needing only one point from their final Division 1A game against the hosts Hungary - Team GB dramatically equalised with only 15 seconds to go through Nottingham’s Robert Farmer to guarantee gold and promotion to the top level of the World Championship for the first time since 1994.

GB, ranked 24th in the world and the tournament’s bottom seeds, needed a point to win promotion but were trailing 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining.

A Robert Dowd goal was followed by a penalty-shot save by Ben Bowns before Farmer sent GB into dreamland with the equalising goal with only 15.8 seconds remaining.

GB went on to win the game 3-2 by securing a penalty-shot victory and will be joined in the top flight by Italy, while Kazakhstan win the bronze medal.

Head coach, Pete Russell, said: “We dared to dream and we did it. I just cannot believe it. This team is very special and what we have pulled off is absolutely unbelievable.”

Related topics:Hungary