Men's Ice Hockey IIHF World Championship 2021

[hckošice 13,217]

and we have the first official team roster !

 

28 days to go.   already officialy revealed teir team for Riga 2021.

 

 

Team coached by Pete Russell shocked the whole hockey world by avoiding the relegation thanks to surprising overtime win over France in their last and decisive game at the 2019 World Championships in Slovakia.

 

Teams are allowed to select 28 players on their roster for this year Tournament. while the British have still left one place vacant for now, they already announced today the 27 players wo will fly to Latvia for the mondial. The core of the team has remained unchanged compared to their roster in Košice 2 years ago with a total of 17 returning players from the last world championships. Five hockey players will experience their debut at the World Championships of any category, one is a complete novice in National Team and the remaining four have already played for Great Britain in lower World Championship divisions before or in Olympic qualifiers.

 

Among notable players, Mike Hammond, who scored his team's only goal in 2019 in the 1-7 loss to host Slovakia, and the Mr hero scorer of that golden goal in overtime against the French who saved GB in the elite category, Ben Davies, are not missing.

 

All but one of the players compete in the local national EIHL competition. Only Evan Mosey plays the German 2nd league.

 

The 2020/21 EIHL season was not played, it was first interrupted due to coronavirus concerns, and later did not even restarted in full due to financial difficulties. But then the league announced that the season would take place in a shortened mode and with only four teams. Nottingham Panthers, Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm and Sheffield Steelers. All 4 started playing each other in a special bubble in Nottingham only in early April. Each team play every opponent 4 times, so the teams will go to the playoffs after 12 duels. In it, they will play the semifinals in a changed format, the score will decide about the finalists, and the finals will be played as a best-of-3 series. The final should begins on May 1. In other words, Evan Mosey from the second German league will have the most matches played from this team.

 

Great Britain is in the preliminary A-group, where it will meet with Russian Ice Hockey Federation Team, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark and Belarus. They will start the tournament against Russian Ice Hockey Federation Team, after which Slovakia is waiting them as next opponent. 

[hckošice 13,217]

TEAM GREAT BRITAIN

 

 

Goaltenders:

 

Ben Bowns (Cardiff Devils)

Jordan Hedley (Coventry Blaze)

Jackson Whistle (Nottingham Panthers)

 

Defencers:

 

David Clements (Coventry Blaze)

Dallas Ehrhardt (Manchester Storm)

Mark Garside (Nottingham Panthers)

Sam Jones (Sheffield Steelers)

Evan Mosey (EHC Freiburg, DEL 2, )

Ben O'Connor (Sheffield Steeldogs)

David Phillips (Sheffield Steelers)

Josh Tetlow (Nottingham Panthers)

 

Forwards:

 

Ollie Betteridge (Nottingham Panthers)

Brendan Connolly (Sheffield Steelers)

Ben Davies (Manchester Storm)

Robert Dowd (Sheffield Steelers)

Sam Duggan (Coventry Blaze)

Luke Ferrara (Coventry Blaze)

Mike Hammond (Coventry Blaze)

Lewis Hook (Nottingham Panthers)

Liam Kirk (Sheffield Steelers)

Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)

Ben Lake (Manchester Storm)

Ciaran Long (Manchester Storm)

Matthew Myers (Sheffield Steelers)

Brett Perlini (Nottingham Panthers)

Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers)

Ross Venus (Coventry Blaze)

[hckošice 13,217]

Road to Riga

 

Exhibition Games

April 22nd, 2021

(28 Days to Go)-

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Austria (Division IA)  0 - 5  Czech Republic

(0-1, 0-2, 0-2) 

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Road to Riga

 

Exhibition Games

April 23rd, 2021

(27 Days to Go)-

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Russia   6 - 3  Belarus

(0-0, 6-1, 0-2) 

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Road to Riga

 

Exhibition Games

April 24th, 2021

(26 Days to Go)-

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Russia "B"   2 - 0  Belarus

(1-0, 1-0, 0-0) 

 

Czech Republic   7 - 2  (Division IA) Austria

(1-1, 1-1, 5-0) 

 

Slovakia   (PSO)4 - 3  Germany

(0-2, 2-1, 1-0, Overtime: 0-0, Penalty Shoot-Out: 1-0) 

[hckošice 13,217]

Road to Riga

 

Exhibition Games

April 25th, 2021

(25 Days to Go)-

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Slovakia   2 - 1  Germany

(0-0, 1-1, 1-0) 

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Highlights from yesterday match

 

 

 

Highlights from todays game TBA later

 

 

 

[hckošice 13,217]

16 hours ago, hckošice said:

Highlights from todays game TBA later

and here are the second match highlights

 

[hckošice 13,217]

The Latvian national team will very likely be without any NHL or North_Amerivan competition based player since they can not count on the NHL goaltender Elvis Merzlikins for the home World Championships. The 27-year-old Columbus Blue-Jackets GK has already apologized to the fans.

 

He and his wife expect an addition to the family in the next months and he is also still suffering from the injured shoulder. "If I went to Riga, my wife would be left alone in America. I really wanted to go to the championship, but family and health are a priority. I'm really sorry, I'd rather go home. I haven't seen my mother in a year, my brother came to see me just for one week and it all ended in tears. I miss my family and Latvia. I want to go home and have a beer with shashlik. But I am honest and I apologize to all Latvian fans, "Merzlikins said to sportacentrs.com.

 

The host country will very likely have to rely only on a roster composed of players from the european leagues and domestic clubs.

 

 

Will be a strange schampionship this year, since there no relegation, all teams may try some experiments and field rosters with younger inexperienced players. Obviously everyone want to qualify for the Quarterfinals, but realistically only 10-11 teams can fight for the 8 spots, the remaining 5-6 teams will have a pretty fun stressless nice tournament

[hckošice 13,217]

The young Trio 17 years old Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec and Samuel Kňažko all survived the first major cut in the roster today. One week more in the team = another week closer to the world champs for them. I really hope at least one of them will be in Riga. Ultra super mega hype trainnnnnnn

 

 

7 guys were removed from the team, among the most famous names, dream is over for example for Denis Godla Oliver Okuliar Mucha, Bubela, Gašpar, Vitaloš and Michal Chovan..

 

 

In the opposite 11 new names will enter the team from Thursday :

 

Among them the Top scorer of this season Regular season SHL Marek Hrivík and his executive line and team mate from Leksand Peter Cehlárik, but also Michal Krištof from Oulu, Goalies Tomek (SaiPa/KalPa) and Július Hudáček (Spartak Moscow), interesting names are also Matúš Sukeľ from Sparta Prague and the 2 new fresh champions from Třinec Patrik Hrehorčák and Miloš Roman, from the losing side Liberec only Mislav Rosandič was called, interesting return of this very solid but often forgotten defencer with croatian decents to the team.