Josh Waller scored a hat-trick as Great Britain staged a superb comeback to beat Italy 5-3 in Varese in their final game ahead of the World Championship which gets under way in Switzerland this weekend.

Three goals in two-and-a-half minutes was the catalyst for GB to come from 3-1 down with just over six minutes remaining to secure an impressive victory.

It means the two sides share the series with two wins each across the four matches in the UK and Italy.

Mat Robson started between the pipes for GB with Ben Bowns as back-up.

Italy lead at first intermission
Robson made a superb point-blank save to deny Alessandro Segafredo inside the opening five minutes.

Italy netminder Jacob Smith made stops on Bayley Harewood and Logan Neilson in quick succession, while Johnny Curran shot just wide.

Robson made a fine pad save to turn away a shot by Nick Saracino, but was beaten by a great finish by Matt Bradley who cut in off the right and went top-shelf (17:11).

Waller on target but Italy increase advantage
Brett Perlini hit the post early in the second session and Cole Shudra was denied on a short-handed odd-man rush.

Robson made an outstanding stop on Bryce Misley from close-range as Italy looked to extend their lead.

Silky skills from Robert Dowd saw him beat two players and set-up Cade Neilson with a drop-pass but his shot came back off the pipes.

Marco Zanetti scored Italy’s second with a close-range finish (33:44), but 87 seconds later Josh Waller forced a turnover and went bar-down to beat Smith (35:11).

But Italy regained their two-goal advantage when Phil Pietroniro went top-shelf from the top of the left-circle on a five-on-three powerplay (38:31).

GB stun Italy with late comeback
Clear-cut chances were at a premium in the early stages of the third period but Robson denied Bradley from the slot.

Just as Italy looked to be easing to victory, Waller and Perlini set-up Logan Neilson who drove the backdoor to close the gap (53:55).

Two goals in 18 seconds saw GB take the lead as Nathanael Halbert fed Curran to redirect the puck from close-range (55:59) and after Perlini won the face-off, Waller scored with a wrist-shot from the slot (56:17).

Waller completed his hat-trick with an empty-net goal from his own zone (59:07) to secure a quite remarkable comeback form Pete Russell’s side.

Attention now turns to World Championship in Switzerland
GB will travel to Switzerland tomorrow morning to set-up their base at the 12,000-seater Swiss Life Arena in Zurich ahead of Saturday’s opening World Championship game against Austria.

GB will also face USA, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland, Latvia and Germany in Group A over the next two weeks.

Group B – which is being held at the 9,000-seater BCF Arena in Fribourg, consists of Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia and Italy.

Four-Game Series results
Thursday 30th April: Great Britain 4-6 Italy at Planet Ice Milton Keynes
Saturday 2nd May: Great Britain 4-1 Italy at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
Sunday 10th May: Italy 2-0 Great Britain at the Acinque Ice Arena, Varese
Tuesday 12th May: Italy 3-5 Great Britain at the Acinque Ice Arena, Varese