Great Britain beat Latvia 3-2 at iceSheffield in their opening game of the women’s Olympic Qualifiers.
Three players made their GB full debuts with Robin Mullen becoming the 149th player to ice for GB, followed by Emma Nichols (150th) and Madi Wright (151st).
Forward Katherine Gale became the 11th player to reach 50 appearances and all four were presented with their caps before the game.
Ella Howard was the starting netminder with Nichols as back-up in her debut tournament.
Captain Jodie Alderson-Smith put GB ahead when she buried a close-range rebound for her ninth international goal (3:38).
Latvia hit back within 32 seconds through Liga Miljone (4:10) as the two sides went to the first intermission tied at one-all.
GB netted twice in 91 seconds at the start of the second period to take control of the game.
Katie Henry scored a great solo goal on the powerplay as she kept possession in the offensive zone and cut inside from the right to fire past Kristiana Apsite (25:14).
Strength from Gale saw her dive and slot the puck over the line from close-range for GB’s third (26:45), but Latvia hit back with a neat finish by Krista Yip-Chuck (36:06).
An end-to-end tense third period saw no further goals as GB secured a win in their opening game of the tournament.
Tickets
Tickets are available on the door at iceSheffield all weekend.
Admission is via Day Tickets which covers two matches a day and costs just £15 (plus fees) for adults.
Concession tickets (over-65s and under-16s) are on sale for only £8 (plus fees).
Webcast
All matches at the women’s Olympic Qualifiers in Sheffield are being shown live on a webcast.
Individual webcasts cost £4 each or you can buy a tournament pass for £10 to give access to all six games.
Click here to buy the webcast.
Schedule and Results
Thursday 12th December
Netherlands 2-0 Spain
Great Britain 3-2 Latvia
Saturday 14th December
Latvia v Netherlands (12:30)
Great Britain v Spain (16:00)
Sunday 15th December
Spain v Latvia (12:30)
Netherlands v Great Britain (16:00)
