The World Cup: A Historic Victory for Great Britain

Great Britain defeated Belarus 4-3 on Wednesday in Riga to secure their first in-time win in the World Hockey Championships since 1962.

Liam Kirk’s double, followed by Ben Davis and Mike Hammond’s nets, gave the British a 4-1 lead in this match just over ten minutes before the match ended.

Although he twice surrendered to Jeff Platt and Shane Prince before the final whistle, goalkeeper Ben Bones still blocked most of his 22 shots in the third game – and a total of 36 shots – for this historic victory.

Vladislav Kodola also sewed the needle for Belarus. Danny Taylor saved 22 balls.

Kazakhstan is still shining

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan continued its unlikely run by inflicting their first loss on Germany with a 3-2 win.

Kazakhstan ranked 16th in the world according to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), this time it was able to wipe its deficit with one goal in the third inning by Roman Starchenko. Pavel Akulzin then scored the winning goal just over four minutes before the end.

Nikita Boyarkin is back on top with 28 saves. She was beaten by Tom Konakle and Marcus Eisenchmid. The goalkeeper has conceded only eight goals in four matches since the start of the tournament.

Kazakhstan, who will face Canada on Friday, jumped to fourth in Group Two with a record 3-1. Germany remains at the top with a similar record, but it could be deposed on Thursday if Latvia or Finland wins.

White Game for Russia

Russia needed 39 minutes to start, but were still 3-0 down to beat Denmark.

Ivan Morozov, Alexander Parabanov and Dmitry Voronkov moved in, while goalkeeper Alexander Samonov stood in front of the Danish strikes to sign the lockdown.

The Russians join the Slovaks at the top of Group A, but the latter has a game in hand.