BASINGSTOKE Bison young guns Zach Sullivan and Andy Melachrino helped Great Britain to fourth place in the under-20 World Championship Division One Group B held in the Ukraine.

The Brits suffered a heartbreaking penalty shot loss in their opening game after the game ended 1-1, with both goals coming in the second session.

Slough’s man-of-the-match Aaron Connolly scored GB’s goal, assisted by Adam Harding and Jack Watkins.

After 65 minutes failed to split the sides, the game was decided on a shoot-out and Harding and Ross Venus saw their efforts both saved as the host nation’s shooters were more clinical past Adam Goss, scoring twice.

In GB’s next game they took a 2-0 lead in the first 11 minutes as man-of-the-match James Griffin scored from Harding and then Watkins netted again on the powerplay, assisted by Jack Musil, and the Brit player of the tournament Paul Swindlehurst.

However, the Poles, who went on to win the group, hit back and tied the game at 24:33 on their way to a 6-2 victory.

GB bounced straight back in their third game in the Ukraine as they beat Croatia 4-0.

Peterborough’s Luke Ferrara gave them the lead in the third minute and that is how it stayed going into the last period.

The Brits then made the game safe as Musil and Ferrara scored again, before Mark Selby netted assisted by Bison forward Melachrino and Peterborough’s Will Weldon.

Next up for GB was a game against Italy, which they lost 6-0, the Italians winning the game thanks to a three-goal blitz in the space of three minutes early in the second period.

The final game of the tournament was against Kazakhstan and, despite Connolly tieing the game just 26 seconds after their opponents had taken the lead, GB eventually went down 4-1.

The result meant they had to settle for fourth place in the group, which saw Poland promoted and Croatia relegated.