Murphy named top goalie as GB miss out on bronze

Stephen Murphy would probably swap all of the personal accolades he collected this week for a World Championship medal.

Instead the Great Britain stopper's only reward for a brave week's work was to be named outstanding netminder for the IIHF Division 1 Group B tournament.

Murphy finished with the group's second highest save percentage (only the relegated Croatian goalie faced more shots), but his exploits were not enough to earn a repeat of last year's bronze medal.

His performance was even more vital as GB found goals hard to come by throughout their five games, scoring just ten times, but thanks to the Belfast Giant's display they conceded just ten as well. (Only runners-up Hungary allowed fewer (7), with winners Slovakia equalling GB's total.)

Sadly for GB a pair of those goals came in the heart breaking 2-1 defeat to Poland in the bronze medal decider.

Rivalry renewed

It is the third consecutive year that the two sides have met to with bronze on the line, and even more remarkably, on each occasion the same scoreline has decided the outcome.

Last year GB triumphed, as Ashley Tait smashed home an overtime winner in Torun, Poland, exacting a modicum of revenge for the previous year's shootout defeat in Austria.

This time round Cardiff Devils forward Phil Hill gave GB the lead in a dominant first period display, but they were unable to repeat that intensity until the game's closing minutes when desperately chasing an equaliser to Mikolaj Lopuski's strike (pictured).

For the better part of 40 minutes inbetween they lacked the intensity of the first stanza, and appeared to tire as the strains of five games in a week preceded by an unexpected 26 hour bus trip to Slovenia began to show.

This allowed Poland to wrestle away the momentum which they finally capitalised on late in the second period as Jaroslaw Rzeszutko finally put in a rebound after Murphy had made two saves.

That should have been the wake up call GB needed, but they were only able to rouse themselves when it was too late.

Even so, they nearly pushed the game into an extra period as Tait struck a post and another two shots flew narrowly wide before the final hooter signaled celebrations for the Poles.

The result left Andy Buxton, general manager of Team GB, frustrated at coming so close to a repeat of last year's victory and disappointed that his side didn't challenge the opposition goalie enough.

"We’ve started to shoot the puck (at the end of the game) and the goalie’s looking dodgy," he told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire immediately after the final whistle.
"There was a 20-30 minute period in middle of game where didn’t shoot puck enough, and I don’t think we helped ourselves as much as we could have.
"But the goalie for Poland made some huge saves for them," he added.

Exhaustion

Buxton did pay tribute to the players who had to endure the disruption of an exhausting marathon bus journey after their flight was cancelled due to the closure of British airspace.

"The guys are really tired and the extra travel over takes it out of you," he explained.
"They ran out of legs at end and maybe didn’t make most of opportunities to shoot when they had the chance.
"I'm positive though, we don’t want this (appearing in a medal match) to become a one off, we want to look forward and make it a regular occurrence," he added.

GB had hoped to challenge the hosts and Hungary for the lone promotion spot to the elite tournament graced by perennial world powers Canada, Russia, USA and the Czech Republic, but couldn't quite find a way past the pair despite valiant efforts.

Both Slovenia and Hungary were relegated from ice hockey's top division in the last two years, and their extra step in class narrowly told.

Although Hungary did claim a 2-0 win, GB had their chances with Tait missing a penalty shot that would have seen a nervous end to the game for the Hungarians, and Slovenia were only able to scrape by with an overtime goal that lead to scenes of jubilation from their bench and massed supporters.

With Korea and relegated Croatia soundly beaten, it appears GB have securely cemented themselves at this second tier of international ice hockey and may soon be ready to push on and take their place among the world's elite teams.

Going for Gold

The hopes of a nation are riding on the shoulders of 23 athletes as the 2010 Winter Olympics start today in Vancouver.

That’s not the total number of competitors Great Britain is sending to western Canada but the host nation’s men’s ice hockey squad.

For Canadian ice hockey, read English football, only colder, more physical and more dedicated.
Many young Canadians grow up playing hockey on homemade backyard rinks in temperatures well below freezing.

And that’s just the start.

If they work hard enough, are determined enough, and more importantly lucky enough to be blessed with some talent on skates, they will soon be playing their way through the junior ranks.
And at just 16-years-old those kids can be playing in front of National Hockey League sized crowds.

It’s a telling statement that, as Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, performed a good luck Vancouver ceremony with James Wright, Canadian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, the pair crossed hockey sticks in Trafalgar Square.

Not crossed ski poles, or sitting in a bobsleigh, but hockey sticks.

Canada will undoubtedly be near the summit of the final medal table, but for many who reside north of the 49th parallel, the nation’s success will be based solely on the performance of one team.

There are plenty of other medal hopes.

Howard Martin and Cheryl Bernard will be favourites to lead their teams to curling gold, Manuel Osbourne-Paradis and Erik Guay are medal hopes in downhill skiing, with the freestyle skiing and figure skating teams expecting to make the podium as well.

But it will all come back to the “good old hockey game.”

It may seem unfair to place such huge pressure on only one team for one medal, but it is just a fact of life for Canadians.