GREAT Britain Under-20s ice hockey team which included the Bison’s Josh Smith and former Basingstoke Buffalo goalie Jordan Lawday had to settle for a bronze medal at the World Championships at Dumfries.
The Brits went into their final game knowing a victory would see them win the competition and gain promotion, but instead it was Japan who took this accolade after a 5-2 victory over them.
Korea were silver medallists after beating Romania earlier in the day.
The Brits final game of the tournament saw them a goal down in the fifth minute, after Lawday was beaten by Masato Kume and then Daiki Miura made it 2-0 before the first break.
Liam Kirk took his tournament tally to seven goals, as GB closed the gap at 29:21.
Lawday pulled off a magnificent point-bank save from Hiroya Tokuda on the powerplay to keep the deficit at one at the end of the second session.
Japan took a two-goal lead again when Hayato Aiki early in the final period scored and then Miura's second made it 4-1 at 51:09.
GB head coach Slava Koulikov took his timeout at 55:22 and lifted netminder Lawday for the extra skater and it paid dividends within 15 seconds as Cole Shudra netted on the rebound.
Despite a further three minutes of constant pressure GB were unable to find a way past Eiki Sato, and Junki Shinoda wrapped the game up into the empty net.
Two days earlier, GB suffered the heartache of losing in a penalty shoot-out to Korea 5-4.
This was after they opened the tournament with a 3-2 win over Romania, in which Lawday was voted man of the match.
They followed this up with two more victories over Estonia 6-2 and the Netherlands 8-1.
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