your sons are serving their country
When our Steelers trio is away at the World Championship, Thanks to the newest member of our media team, Emily Laycock, we’ll keep you updated on their progress. (Photo Dean Woolley)
The IIHF 2024 World Championship is being held in Prague, Czech Republic, with three Steelers players representing Great Britain on the world’s biggest stage.
Great Britain, which won gold at Nottingham last year and was promoted to the top division again in 2024, will face Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Austria, world number one Canada, and world number two Finland.
Cole Shudra, Sam Jones and Robert Dowd were all selected in Pete Russell’s 25-player squad for the Championship after a two-week training camp in Nottingham following back-to-back wins over Poland and a warm-up. Ta. An international match against Kazakhstan was held as part of a training camp in Slany.
This will be Khor Shudra’s debut at the World Championship. He earned his first three international caps at the Olympic qualifiers in Cardiff in February, when Great Britain secured three wins and qualified for the final qualifying round in Denmark in August.
The 25-year-old forward said: “Cardiff was great for me. It was a bit of an introduction to the team, the squad and how Pete likes to run a team. I think for me it was the perfect warm-up to get started. Masu.”
It was a smooth introduction to the GB squad for the young player, thanks to familiar faces Sam Jones and Robert Dowd during camp.
Jones will be competing in his third Top Tier World Championship this year, with Dowd captaining the team for the first time at this level. The Billingham-born forward succeeds former Great Britain Sheffield Steelers team-mate Jonathan Phillips, who has retired from international hockey, and has the honor of wearing the ‘C’ mark for the first time in an Olympic qualifier.
It has already been a career year for Dowd, who led the Steelers to three trophies in his first year as captain, and will be aiming for his final success this season as the English international looks to survive in the top flight.
The first full day in Prague was a media day for Great Britain, with headshots and goal celebrations filmed by the IIHF, followed by the first on-ice practice for the highly anticipated matchup against Canada.
Shudra said: “I think chemistry is a big part of this game and we’ve all come together really well over the last few weeks.
I think we have a solid system in place, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it pans out. ”
Another training session took place on Friday, followed by the tournament’s opening ceremony, with Great Britain ready for the first round of the 2024 World Championship.
All three of Sheffield’s star players were included in the 22-man squad as Great Britain prepared to take on world number one Canada in the first leg in Prague. It was an incredible performance from the underdogs as former Sheffield Steelers forward Liam Kirk opened the scoring and Great Britain took the lead after 7:47.
The Canadians fought back at the first intermission to tie the score at 1-1 in front of a crowd of 16,935 at the O2 Arena, but lost the lead just five minutes into the second period.
Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in last year’s NHL Draft, impressed in his World Championship debut, scoring two goals to lead his team to 4-1 heading into the third and final period.
A stoic English defense with Jackson Whistle between the pipes prevents another former Steeler, Ben O’Connor, from adding a point to his NHL star, and he takes action on the other side of the ice in the highlights. He scored a reel goal to make it 4 points. 2.
After the match he said: “There’s a reason they’re the No. 1 team in the world. We watched NHL highlights on TV every day and thought we were proud of ourselves.
“We took it to them in parts. We moved the puck well, we were moving the puck on the power play, but we were unlucky not to score.
“Again, all positive things for the next game and the rest of the tournament. For the most part in that game, we were absolutely perfect.”
O’Connor recalled head coach Pete Russell saying: “This is probably one of the best team performances we’ve seen him in a GB shirt in the last 10 years.” And just 24 hours later, I was ready to try again.
The second leg quickly proved to be another tough test for the Brits as they faced world No. 2 Finland, but both teams came into the game having suffered opening defeats.
It was a good first half for GB as they limited their opponents to just one goal in the first period, but Finland had another seven goals in net with Ben Bownes in the second and third periods, which is why they are in second place. proved. They won by keeping the Brits goalless.
Sam Jones, Cole Shudra and Robert Dowd once again donned England’s red, white and blue kit, with the captain saying after the game: “In the first few games, we neither won nor lost the tournament.
“Yesterday’s performance was [against Canada] His legs looked a little tired today, but he took advantage of that in the second period.
“They are an elite league, the second best in the world, and if they don’t give up an inch, they will accept it.”
Two games were then played in two days, giving Pete Russell’s side a well-deserved two-day break before returning for the third leg against Switzerland on Wednesday.