Great Britain 3 Poland 1: GB warm-up nicely in Leeds in countdown to World Championships

The 3-1 win over Poland in front of a 2,200 capacity crowd at Elland Road Ice Arena was certainly competitive enough against opponents they edged past in Nottingham last May on the way to both teams earning promotion to the top tier of the World Championships.

Once there, testing encounters against the likes of Canada, Finland and the hosts Czechia await for GB, but there will be other games GB will be targeting in Group A in order to ensure they retain their status among the world’s elite for 2025 in Sweden and Denmark.

While GB head for Prague, Poland will head for Ostrava where they will compete in Group B against Sweden, USA, Slovakia and Latvia and, like GB, hoping that they can pick up enough points elsewhere in order to avoid an instant return to Division 1A.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night in the more familiar confines of Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, the venue where Russell and his players have been based for their pre-tourmament training camp and the scene of their memorable promotion last year.

The Elland Road pad may not have been as big as the one they have been practising on in the East Midlands most of the week, nor the Olympic-sized rinks they will encounter in Czechia and it may have taken some of the players a short time to get used to their tighter surroundings.

But once they did, it made for a competitive, entertaining affair, one that got a bit testy at times, a good sign of the aggression both teams will need to compete against higher-ranked opponents next month.

Poland made the early running, forcing former Sheffield Steelers’ netminder Jackson Whistle into a couple of smart saves, while Nathaniel Halbert and Sean Norris went close at the other end.

After a goalless first period, the second period hadn’t got too far along before the deadlock was broken, defenceman Josh Batch blasting home from the top of the right circle to make it 1-0 at 24.38.

Poland thought they had equalised soon after only to see their effort ruled out for goaltender interference, their frustrations increased further before the end of the period when Brett Perlini – denied when hitting the post on an earlier power play – made no mistake when fed by captain Liam Kirk on a five-on-three power play to make it 2-0 at 38.52.

It was Kirk, rumoured to be making a move to Germany’s DEL this summer after a successful season in Czechia with HC Litvinov, who increased the hosts’ advantage in the third, making the most of a set-up from Cade Neilson before seeing his shot cannon in off both posts and over the line in the 46th minute.

There were several skirmishes throughout the game without anything getting too testy, Poland determined to give their opponents the tough workout both teams needed ahead of the tougher nights that lies in store from May 11 onwards in Prague.

They got their rewards when they got on the board through Dominik Pas’s close-range effort at 55.32, but it was a comfortable night overall for GB, with several changes likely to be made as Russell continues to assess his options before making the final call for his roster in the coming days.