Great Britain wake up in the last period

Too much Britain for the young brave Estonia: home team, in a SSE Arena half empty, needs 5 minutes to open the score taking advantage of a lopsided pass by Aleksander Petrov, stolen by David Clarke and delivered for the easy deflection of home boy Mark Garside. Estonia has a good chance with captain Lauri Lahesalu but he fires on Stephen Murphy, tonight in the net for Britons. Quite surprisingly for the rest of the period, even with a clear superiority and a constant occupation of opponents’ defensive zone, home team manages to score just one more goal, a long-range shot by David Phillips with Estonian goalie Koitmaa covered by Shields.

A power play at the begin of central period gives Estonia some breaths and a couple of chances from the distance, well controlled by Murphy, but the encouraging start disorients the Great Britain that feels the Baltic predominance and suffers the goal scored by Roman Andrejev deflecting a Lahesalu shot at 29:20. A minute later Petrov has the puck of the draw on the stick but fires on Murphy, imitated by Rauno Parrras at minute 33. Luckily for Great Britain the period is over without major damages, because Estonia would have deserved a goal more and can claim for the superiority on ice, producing few real chances.

The pause seems to have benefited the home team, quickly re-establish distances with Liam Stewart at 41:16 and then securing the victory with a lethal one-two punch made by David Clarke and Evan Mosey around minute 44 that leave Estonia uncappable to react and now at the mercy of a refreshed Great Britain. After a save by Murphy on Makrov, the plot restarts with home team constantly besieging Koitmaa goal, despite an opponent more aggressive: Liam Stewart misses a favourable chance at 57 but a four-goals difference is more than enough for a game well played by Britain just in the last period. Estonia, in the presence of a stronger opponent, showed grimness and give some headache to the Britons

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